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Some Recolle&ions 

BY 

Captain Charles Low 


Commanding the Clipper Ships “ Houqua 
“ Jacob Bell,” “ Samuel Russell,” and 
“ N. B. Palmer,” in the 
China Trade 

1847-1873 



‘A life on the ocean wave, 

A home on the rolling deep * 


Boston 

Geo. H. Ellis Co., 272 Congress Street 
1905 v 















& 550 
. L 85 

2m 


LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 28 1905 

Copyrigtit Entry 

a 2 / 9^6 

CLASS CX XXc, No, 

/ 3 f 7 ¥ S 

COPY A. 


Copyright by 

FRANCES LOW PARTRIDGE 
1905 






This book is dedicated to my wife 
and to our seven children 


















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SOME RECOLLECTIONS 

BY 

CAPTAIN CHARLES P. LOW 


“And I have loved thee, Ocean! And my joy 
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be 
Borne, like thy bubbles, onward: from a boy 
I wanton’d with thy breakers, 


And trusted to thy billows far and near, 

And laid my hand upon thy mane.” 

Byron. 

Over and over again have I been asked by my relatives 
to write the story of my life, and once or twice I have 
begun it; but it seemed so egotistical to tell of one’s own 
exploits! And, then, it is so very tedious to write an 
experience of many years that I gave it up, not feeling equal 
to the task; but having at the present time a great deal 
of leisure, and being pressed to do it by my family, I have 
concluded on this first day of the New Year, 1903, to start 
in and try what I can do. As these papers are not for 
publication, but only to interest my nearest relatives, I 
feel less embarrassment in writing than I should if they 
were to go before the public. Of course, I have to trust 
a great deal to memory, and do not vouch for the truth of 
the several dates of what happened in the period of my 
boyhood. 




2 


I was bom somewhere in Salem, Mass., on the nine¬ 
teenth day of September, in the year 1824. This I pre¬ 
sume is correct, for it so appears in the genealogical records 
of the Low family. I have no doubt I was the finest baby 
ever born, for I never knew one that was not; and I grew 
as other boys do, with the exception that I was, at a very 
early age, inclined to seek salt water. My mother told me 
that as soon as I could crawl I went for it, and I remember 
as far back as I remember anything that to be on and in 
the water was my supreme delight. When I was four 
years old, my father removed with his family to Brooklyn, 
N.Y. That was in 1828, and Brooklyn was a village, 
and more like a big farm-yard; for the pigs ran about the 
streets in large numbers. 

My life has been a chapter of accidents. The first one 
occurred soon after we settled in our new home. I cannot 
say when, but I was not over five years old. I was plaguing 
the cook one Saturday afternoon while she was washing 
the kitchen floor, and while she was chasing me I fell on 
the slippery floor, and broke my left arm half-way between 
the wrist and the elbow. I probably suffered very much 
but I do not remember anything about it; and for a few 
years afterwards my memory fails to find any tiling re¬ 
markable to relate. I went to an infant school, and I 
presume I bent pins and set them in the teacher’s chair 
and in the scholars’ chairs when I could get a chance; 
and I delighted in mischief. I am quite sure I was looked 
upon as a bad boy; and if mischief or love of fun stands 
for Satan, I was one of his favorites. 

I do not remember how long I continued in the infant 
school; but a few years after we moved to Brooklyn my 
father and Mr. Howard built two blocks of houses—four- 
story brick houses, two in a block—on Concord Street, 


3 


corner of Washington,—a splendid situation in those days, 
and, I think, the highest ground in the city. My father 
and Mr. Howard then built on Washington Street, in 
the rear of the houses, a large school-house which they 
named the Classical Hall; and soon after we moved into 
the new home, Mr. Eames and Mr. Putnam were called 
from Salem, Mass., to take charge of the school. The 
upper hall Mr. Eames occupied, and it was soon filled with 
the best young men of Brooklyn. Mr. Putnam taught the 
juveniles in the lower room, and altogether it made a large 
school and the best in the city. I went to Mr. Putnam’s 
division. 

On Adams Street, near Concord was a public school, 
which was a large one, and I think the only one in Brook¬ 
lyn at that time. On Henry Street, near Pineapple Street, 
Mr. Hegeman had a large private school. A very good 
class of boys attended, almost as many as attended the 
Classical Hall. It had a belfry with a large bell which 
could be heard at a long distance, and which served to call 
the three schools to their studies. I remember the bell, 
for four or five of us one bitter cold night got up in the 
belfry and upset the bell, making it fast with the mouth 
up, and filled it half full of water which froze solid before 
morning; and it was very late the next morning when it 
rung again. 

The public school and Hegeman’s school united to¬ 
gether to whip the boys in our school, and many were the 
fights with snowballs in winter and hand-to-hand contests 
in the summer. I remember one snowball fight which 
began at half-past twelve at the noon recess, with the boys 
of Hegeman’s school, who attacked us on the corner of 
Washington and Concord Streets. The snowballs fell 
thick and fast till one o’clock, when Mr. Eames and Mr. 


4 


Putnam, bell in hand, stood in front of our school to call 
us in. We were backing down to answer the bell, when 
one of the enemy fired a hard snowball, which struck Mr. 
Putnam in the forehead and knocked him down. Seeing 
this, our boys made a rush, and chased our enemies through 
Concord Street to Pineapple, and did not stop till they all 
took refuge in their school in Henry Street. We then 
pelted the school-house till half-past one, when we returned 
to our own school and had a lecture from Mr. Eames. 
Mr. Putnam had recovered from the blow but had quiet 
a lump on his forehead. 

Numberless were the fights we had with the two schools, 
and also the individual scrimmages. I will only mention 
one, which caused me to be laid up two months or more 
with my right arm broken. We generally stayed on our 
playground after school, as we had a gymnasium there 
and were all fond of exercise. Many of the boys of the 
public school came every day to see us and were always 
ready for a fight. A boy about my own age and size took 
particular pains to get up a fight with me, and about once 
a week we had a set to, generally ending in a draw. After 
a number of fights he found he could not whip me. About 
this time I had a pair of stilts. The steps were six feet 
from the ground. I was walking on them in Washington 
Street, and not suspecting any trouble, when this boy 
came up behind me and tripped me up. I fell flat, with 
my right arm under the stilt, breaking it just below the 
elbow. I was carried home, and the doctor set the arm; 
but it was a long time before it was strong again. My 
father had the stilts broken up for kindling wood. I never 
saw that boy afterwards. 

When I was twelve years old, I fell in love with a very 
pretty girl, and I proposed to her to be my wife and she 


5 


accepted me; but her parents shortly after moved to New 
York and that was the last I ever saw of her. 

At this early age I was bound to go to sea, and I went 
to New York and got a berth on board of a brig bound to 
Savannah. Another boy went with me and meant to 
sail with me, but he backed out and so did I. I was very 
sorry, for I was passionately fond of the sea; and if I could 
only get something to float on I was happy. Even in 
winter I have been to Gowanus Bay and got on a cake of 
ice and paddled around. 

Mr. Putnam’s school had on one side a small room used 
for a hat-room. Mr. Putnam used this as a lockup for 
bad boys during lunch time. The outside door was a 
large one with a narrow window on each side. The lock 
of the door went into a hasp which was screwed on to the 
side next to the door. One day I was locked up to go 
without my lunch; but I had a pocket knife with the big 
blade broken off, and I made it into a screw-driver, and 
as soon as the teachers were gone I unscrewed the hasp 
over the lock and went home to lunch. After lunch I 
came back and screwed on the hasp, and no one was the 
wiser. Hardly a day passed but one or more boys were 
locked up, and as soon as the coast was clear of the 
teachers I would hand my knife in through one of the 
small panes of glass which I had broken (by accident, of 
course), and the prisoners released themselves and went 
home to lunch. I carried this on for a long time, till one 
day a boy got out and did not come back, and the 
scheme was made known by one of the good boys and I 
got a good scolding. 

A few months after this I was sent to Mr. Marsh, who 
opened a classical school in a dwelling-house on Willow 
Street, near Pierrepont Street. He had a select number 


6 


of scholars, I think about twenty all told. Many of them 
were much older than myself. At that time the Heights 
were all bare and very steep down to the water’s edge, 
with trees growing on the side. On the top of the Heights 
there was a long, low building, said to have been Wash¬ 
ington’s headquarters, then occupied as an orphans’ 
school; and there were a hard set of boys attending it. 
Of course, our school must have a fight with them. One 
day we were at it, and I was standing on the edge of the 
bank, when one of them threw a stone which struck me 
on the top of the head, cutting a deep gash, and I fell over 
and down the bank some twenty feet, fetching up against 
a tree. I was picked up and carried home in a carriage, 
and was laid up some weeks. I finished my education at 
Mr. Marsh’s school, and at the age of fourteen had to go 
to work. 

My father got me a situation with Gideon Frost, a 
wholesale jobber of dry goods, nothing to be paid me the 
first year, and fifty dollars the second year. There were 
employed besides myself two salesmen, Horace Seaver and 
John Hovey. Seaver always stayed in the store and was a 
very mild, gentlemanly sort of a fellow and a good sales¬ 
man. John Hovey was a rough diamond. He lived at 
the hotels, and picked up the Western merchants, dined 
them, took them to the theatre and showed them about 
the city, and then sold them a large bill of goods. This 
way of doing business was carried on by all the jobbing 
houses. Then there was one young man of about twenty- 
five or thirty years, William Shumacher, Leonard Frost, 
son of Gideon, a young fellow called Woodruff, and my¬ 
self. The last three were about of an age; but though 
we were only fourteen years old we had to do a man’s 
work, and hard work it was, especially in the busy season. 


7 


when we were kept at work from six a.m. till eight p.m., 
and very often till two o’clock in the morning, when we 
lay down on the counters till daylight. We were allowed 
a shilling (twelve and a half cents) for our meals, when so 
kept from our homes. 

Pearl Street and Maiden Lane were then the great 
dry-goods streets, and all the clerks vied with one another 
to make the greatest show of packed boxes on the side¬ 
walk in the morning. Marking them was quite an art, 
and the clerk Shumacher was an adept at it. The letters 
were always six inches long and made a great show. 
After some practice I could mark the boxes as well as 
any one and I took great pride in it. 

During the first year I was w T ith Gideon there were fires 
constantly following the great fire in 1835, and almost 
every night I went over with Gideon to the store to see 
if everything was safe. If the fire was nowhere near the 
store, he would go home, and I would dodge away from 
him and go to the fire. Though I was so young I was 
torch boy to Live Oak Engine No. 8 in Brooklyn. At 
that time New York and Brooklyn engines had their 
partners, and a fire in New York sent the Brooklyn engines 
to help there, and a fire in Brooklyn brought the New 
York engines over to help us. My brothers Edward and 
William were members of No. 8, and there was hardly a 
night but there was a fire in one city or the other. I was 
not allowed to go to a fire at night by my parents, so I got 
a long rope which I hid in my room, and after my brothers 
had gone out, I used to tie it to a trunk in the back entry 
and let it down to the roof of the veranda which was two 
stories down. Then I slid down, and from the veranda 
got on to a grape-vine arbor, from there to the ground 
and off to the fire. I always came home with my brothers 


8 


and got to my room without being seen. It was very 
exciting living in those days. The companies were all 
volunteer firemen and the engines were old-fashioned, 
worked by hand; and it was hard work too, as fires were 
so frequent. The members of the different companies 
were almost every evening near the engine-houses, and 
if there was no fire the torch boys were sent out and 
stationed some way apart. The one nearest the engine 
would start by halloing as loud as possible, “Hi! Hi!” 
The next would hallo, “Fire!” and soon the alarm would 
be spread and the engines would rush for one of the widest 
streets to have a race. Very often it ended in a free fight. 
Before I went to sea, my brothers and myself joined engine 
company No. 9, called the “Silk Stocking Company,” 
because the members were all of the first families of 
Brooklyn. They were smart, too, and were almost always 
the first at a fire. 

But to return to my dry-goods store. After the busy 
season was over we had a good deal of leisure. Gideon 
Frost, our employer, was a good Quaker, and every Thurs¬ 
day went to meeting at ten o'clock in the morning. His 
son Leonard and Woodruff and myself would then dodge 
out and go to the wharves and on board ships, and climb 
over the rigging, amusing ourselves by jumping on the 
cotton bales that were piled up for shipment. I would 
go to the masthead of the ships, but I could not get the 
other boys above the topmasthead. We always managed 
to get back before meeting was over. 

The most tedious work I had was when the remittances 
came in from the South and West. The merchants there 
sent through the mails bank bills cut in half, one half 
by one mail and the other half the next day; and it seemed 
as though they delighted in sending small bills,—ones. 


9 


twos, and fives. I had a table with a box of paste and 
sheets of tissue paper cut in strips, and 1 had to match 
the bills and paste them together with these strips of tissue 
paper. It had to be done very nicely, and it was tiresome 
work, and I was always glad when it was over. 

I stayed with Gideon one year, and expected to have 
fifty dollars the second year; but after the first month 
had gone he failed, and all I received for thirteen months’ 
work was about thirty dollars worth of cloth, which I had 
from the store for clothes. 

I was now out of a situation, and my father took me 
as clerk in his store. He was a wholesale commission 
merchant in African and South American goods,—gum 
copal, shellac, myrrh, aloes, peppers, and so forth. The 
store was in Fletcher Street, just back of the dry-goods 
store of Gideon Frost, which ran through from Maiden 
Lane. Just opposite was a sailors’ boarding-house; and 
I spent a good deal of my leisure time with the sailors, 
who taught me to splice and make knots, box the compass, 
and many other things which were a great help to me when 
I went to sea. 

Many of the goods that came to us were very heavy, 
and many were very hard to handle, especially the assa- 
foetida cases, which smelt horridly. We had to have 
eight to twelve negroes at work getting these cases in and 
hoisted one, two, three, and four stories, and I had the 
ordering of them. I never hired a man who could not 
sing well; and it was great fun, when they were hoisting, 
to hear them sing. You could have heard them a block 
away. The men all liked to work for me except when 
we had a thousand or more bags of bird peppers (small red 
peppers). The dust from them was something terrible, 
and after working an hour or so, the men would begin to 


10 


sneeze and go on sneezing till they vomited. Sometimes 
I had to have a dozen different gangs before the job was 
finished. 

I liked my work very much, but all the time I was 
planning to get to sea. My uncle James commanded 
the ship Cabot , and he had a Dutchman for a mate, whom 
he had brought up from a boy. He was called Jan Jansen 
or John Johnson, and he was a very smart seaman. He 
took a great fancy to me, and I spent all the time I could 
get when he was in port aboard his ship. He taught me 
much in the way of seamanship. The most important 
thing, which helped me more than anything else on my 
first voyage, was how to send down a royal yard. I 
learned from him all the running rigging; and, as it is the 
same on all ships, I was a good sailor and I knew just 
where to find a rope when I first went to sea. 

When I was about sixteen years old, I met with an 
accident in which I narrowly escaped being killed. I was 
shipping clerk as well as receiving clerk in my father’s 
store; and one hot day in July I had to go down to a 
schooner just arrived from Salem with a load of gum 
copal. Some twenty-five cases were to be transhipped, 
and I was to take off the weights and mark the cases for 
their new destination. It was noon and the carman was 
feeding his horses, and I was waiting to ride down with 
him, as it was nearly a mile from the store to the place 
where the schooner lay discharging. The horse and cart 
were at the corner of Fletcher and Pearl Streets, facing 
the East River. The driver was around the corner at a 
dry-goods store. I sat on the cart, singing, “Old Low! 
Old Low’s son! Never saw so many Lows since the world 
begun.” Whether my musical voice pleased the horse or 
scared him I cannot say, but he started off. I jumped up 


i 


11 


and took the reins, and said if he was ready I was, intend¬ 
ing to drive him around to the dry-goods store and get the 
driver. The horse turned short around into Pearl Street, 
and headed up the wrong way and I could not turn him 
an inch. He started on a run, and the more I hauled on 
the lines the faster he went. Now the cart was one of the 
old-fashioned two-wheelers, and very heavy. In the front 
was a stationary rung to tie the reins to, called the monitor. 
I found out that the horse was running away. It being the 
noon hour, the street was clear of vehicles; and I thought 
as long as the horse kept straight on I could hold on fast 
enough, but he turned around into Platt Street, and so 
suddenly that he upset the cart and fell himself. The 
monitor broke, and the horse stopped just long enough 
for me to fall on the pavement. One leg went under one 
wheel and my head under the other, and then the horse 
recovered himself and started again. Why my head was 
not smashed no one could tell, but the skin was taken 
off my left ear, and on the right side of my head there 
was a lump as big as a hen’s egg, and my ankle was dis¬ 
located and badly mashed. Both wheels had gone over 
me. They picked me up for dead and carried me into a 
store on the comer. I was insensible and did not come 
to till 1 was placed in a carriage, and found my father and 
brother Josiah with me, on the way to Brooklyn. It was 
a long and painful experience for many weeks. I could 
only lie on my back and suffer, and it was six months 
before I was able to walk without a crutch; but I recovered, 
and went back to the store again and went to work on new 
plans for going to sea. 

I subscribed to Judd's Agriculturist and studied farming, 
intending to go on a farm and make a little money to buy 
a sailor’s outfit, and then run away to sea; but I did not 


12 


like the runaway business, and so I told my brother what 
my object was in trying a farmer’s life, and I knew he 
would tell my father and mother. And so he did. About 
this time my brother Abbot came home from China, and 
he objected very much to my going to sea, and my father 
offered to take me into partnership when I was twenty. 
What my life would have been if I had accepted his offer 
I cannot say, but I refused it. I could not give up the sea. 
I loved it and I was sure I should be unhappy on shore. 
At any rate I felt I must try it. * 

Before I forget it I must tell of a laughable accident 
I met with. I had a great friend named Pardon Taylor. 
We were always together. We went over to the city to¬ 
gether and came home together, and spent our evenings 
with one another. He was in a wholesale grocery store 
on Front Street, and when his store closed before mine 
he came and waited for me, and vice versa. On this 
particular day in the month of August, I got through first 
and went down to his store. He was in a quandary, for 
his employer wished him to take a horse over to Brooklyn, 
and he had an engagement up town. Well, I never had 
been on a horse’s back, but I offered to take the horse 
home for him. As I said, it was in August and very hot 
weather, and I was dressed in white jacket and trousers. 
I mounted the horse and went along Front Street till I 
came to Wall Street. Here the street was very wide and 
filled with auctioneers who sold whole cargoes of teas, 
sugar, and molasses. On this special day the hogsheads of 
molasses were stretched nearly across the street, and the 
molasses was streaming from the bungholes. As I passed 
one of the outer hogsheads, I suppose I pulled the rein too 
hard to turn the horse. At any rate, he sidled up against 
the hogshead and I slipped off right on top of the bung- 


13 


hole. Well, I was in a nice mess, with the seat of my 
trousers covered with molasses; but there was no help 
for it, and I got on the horse again and steered for Fulton 
Ferry. I got safely on the ferry-boat, but I did not get 
off the horse. It was getting dark when I rode up to the 
merchant’s house, so I felt a little more comfortable; but 
I was a little doubtful about getting off the horse, for fear 
he would run away. So I hauled up to a street lamp-post 
and jumped for it, and thus slid down to the sidewalk, 
tied the horse and informed the people in the house that 
I had brought the horse from New York. Then I left in 
a hurry. When I got home and told my story, I thought 
my brothers and sisters would die of laughing, but I soon 
had a wash and clean clothes on and was ready for another 
lark. However, I told my friend that when there was 
another horse to go over the river he would have to take 
it himself. 

I will now leave the history of my boyhood. We had 
lots of fun and never did anything that was really wicked* 
but we created a good deal of talk about the bad boys of 
Brooklyn. To sum all up, a young lady that I was in 
love with told me, when I came back from my first voyage* 
that the city dismissed a third of the constables after I 
went to sea. 

My brother Abbot came home from China with quite a 
good-sized fortune, thinking he did not care to continue 
in business; but he hired an office where he could write 
letters and look after his affairs, and it was not long before 
he took my brother Edward and then my brother Josiah 
into his employ, and began his new career in the China 
trade. After his marriage with Miss Ellen Dow, in March, 
1841, he built a topsail schooner called the Mazeppa , one 
of the handsomest vessels of the kind I ever saw, destined 


14 


for the East India and China trade. My brothers went 
down to Sandy Hook when she sailed and took me with 
them. Just before the steam tug cast off, I got into one 
of the bread lockers in hopes they would not miss me, and 
thus I could get away to sea; but they were on the watch 
for me and my brother Josiah set the captain and mate 
after me, who soon found me half suffocated, and sent me 
on board the tug. But this attempt, and the story my 
brothers told my parents about my plan of going on a 
farm and about my running away, had its effect upon them, 
and they realized that I must go to sea and try it. But 
it was some time yet before my wishes were gratified. 

In the mean time I was making myself ready. By daily 
visits to ships and talking to the sailors in the boarding¬ 
house opposite I learned a great deal, and later on I went 
to a navigation school and studied navigation under an 
old sea captain. 

In May, 1842, my brother William married Miss Bedell 
of Brooklyn, and it was understood that in the fall they 
were to go to China. So about the middle of October 
they engaged passage in the Horatio , Captain Howland, 
master, and, what was better than that, my brother Abbot 
secured a berth for me as boy on board the same ship. 
After he had secured it, he wanted to know how I was 
going to make a living, as boys had no wages. I im¬ 
mediately replied, “As soon as the voyage is over, I will 
ship again.” My brother William told me I need not be 
afraid of starving, he would see me all right. My 
father gave me fifty dollars and a sailor’s outfit, which 
cost about thirty dollars more, and my freedom; that is, 
I was not to depend on him any further, but make my 
own way in the world. 

The fifth day of November, 1842, was the day set for 


15 


sailing, and I could hardly wait, I was so anxious to be 
off. At ten o’clock a.m. the tug came alongside, and my 
brothers and sisters and some six or eight of the Bedell 
girls, sisters of my brother William’s wife, went down to 
Sandy Hook to see us off. The day was pleasant, and 
we had a good start. After leaving the pilot and guests 
we were kept hard at work stowing the anchors and getting 
sail on the ship. It being a fair wind we did not stop 
work till all the studding-sails were set and we were nearly 
out of sight of land. After the decks were cleared up all 
hands were called aft and the watches chosen. We had 
for officers: Captain Howland; first mate, Mr. Wood; 
second mate, Mr. Howard; third mate, Mr. Jennings. 
The first mate was a short, well-built man and a good 
sailor and officer. The second mate was a taller and 
larger man, and a very smart man in every way, but he 
was the most profane man I ever met. Mr. Jennings, 
the third mate, was an active, good-natured fellow and 
understood his work. In fact they were all about as 
well fitted for their positions as I have ever known men to 
be. The watches were chosen by the first and second 
mates. One chooses a man, and then the other chooses, 
till the crew are equally divided. The captain then ad¬ 
dresses the men, telling them he expects them to be quick 
at a call and to do their duty at all times, and that if they 
do, they will be well fed and have a pleasant voyage, but if 
they do not, they will have a rough time of it. At six p.m. the 
captain’s watch went below, ready to turn out at eight p.m. 
and stay on deck till midnight. The rule on board ship is 
for the captain to take the ship out, and the mate to bring 
her home; that is, the captain’s watch, which is looked 
out for by the second mate, has the first eight hours on deck, 
—that is, from eight to twelve p.m. and from four to eight a.m. 


16 


And, coming home, the mate’s watch has the same time the 
first night out. 

The sailmaker and carpenter and we four boys had 
bunks in the between-decks, just forward of the cabin. 
The men all slept forward in the forecastle. The ship 
not being full of cargo, there was plenty of room. The 
sailmaker and carpenter both worked down in the between- 
decks. Our cargo consisted of two or three hundred 
tons of pig lead, lumber, and cotton goods, which filled 
up the lower hold. Water, ship stores, and spare sails 
were all that were in between-decks. 

The first two days out we had fine weather, but the ship 
rolled enough to make all the boys seasick. I escaped, 
however, not feeling the least uncomfortable, but enjoying 
it all. The third day came on with fresh winds, which 
soon amounted to a gale, and orders were given to send 
down the royal yards, and I jumped for the main rigging, 
when the mate sung out to me, “Where in h—1 are you 
going to ? ” 

I said I was going to send down the royal yard. He 
wanted to know what I knew about it. I merely replied 
that I could send it down. 

“Then go ahead, and be quick about it!” he said, at the 
same time calling an ordinary seaman to go up with me; 
and I thought he told him to help me only if I got stuck. 
But I was confident I could do it, and I did it. Having 
got the heaviest of all three down first, after securing the 
lifts and braces to the masts, I came down, and the mate 
said, “Well done, Charlie!” Afterwards when everything 
was snug, he called me and wanted to know if I had been 
to sea before, and, if not, where I had learned to send down 
a royal yard. I told him, and he wanted to know if I 
could box the compass. I told him I could and that I 


17 


should like to steer the ship. He said he would give me a 
chance as soon as the weather was better. 

I found my knowledge helped me very much, for the 
other boys had to feed the pigs and fowls and do the dirty 
work, though to be sure I had to do the slushing the masts 
with them, which is the worst and dirtiest of all the duties 
a boy is called upon to do. The topsail, topgallant, and 
royal yards hoist up and down, a peril, or band, keeping 
them to the masts; and the masts must be well slushed or 
greased to have them move easily, and they must be slushed 
at least once a week. It is generally a Saturday’s job. 
The boy, one for each mast, has an oyster tin or some other 
tin holding a quart or more of slush which he has to get 
from the cook. Now this is his first trouble, for the 
slush is the cook’s perquisite, because it is the grease which 
comes from boiling the men’s beef and pork. Some cooks 
will make ten or twelve barrels during a year’s voyage, 
and they do not like the boys to touch it, and they swear 
at them if they drop or waste it. After getting the slush 
the boy has to provide a piece of flannel to rub it on the 
mast with. Now for a greenhorn or a boy to take this can 
of slush to the masthead without spilling some on his shirt 
bosom or on his pants, or getting it on his hands, is a very 
difficult job. Going up the rigging that has ratlines to 
step on, such as the lower and topmast rigging, is very well; 
but when you get to the topgallant rigging, where there 
are only two shrouds to climb up, and then to the royal 
and skysail masts, with only one rope to climb, then comes 
the trouble. If you can get safely to the skysail masthead 
without grease on your hands you are fortunate, but not 
altogether safe, for you have to dip the rag in the slush 
and rub it on the after side of the mast from top to bottom, 
and you have to hold on with one hand and slide down 


18 


the backstay, greasing the mast as you go, first the skysail 
mast, then the royal mast, then the topgallant mast, and, 
last of all the topmast. If you have been fortunate enough 
not to grease yourself from head to foot and not to spill 
any slush on deck, you are a lucky fellow. This job I 
hated. Tarring down the rigging was easy compared to 
this slushing job. Altogether I was pretty fortunate as 
far as dropping the can or spilling on deck was concerned, 
but generally my clothes had a good share of the cook’s 
slush. 

The living I stood very well, for I had a ravenous ap¬ 
petite. Mondays we had salt beef and bread for break¬ 
fast, dinner, and supper, with a mixture at breakfast 
called coffee, a quart to each one, boiled with molasses. 
It did very well to soak biscuit in, and after a while I 
could drink it and think it good. Tuesday we had salt 
pork for breakfast, bean soup and salt pork for dinner, 
and a quart of vinegar was allowed us on bean day. 
Friday we had the same bill of fare. Wednesday we had 
scouse, or beef hash mixed with potatoes, or if no potatoes, 
ship’s biscuits soaked and mixed with the beef. I was 
very fond of scouse. This was a good breakfast. For 
dinner we had, in addition to salt beef, boiled rice. Each 
man and boy had six large spoonfuls of molasses to eat 
with the rice. The sailmaker used to measure our allow¬ 
ance of molasses, and he would stint us boys if he could, 
so as to have more for himself. Thursday we had scouse 
for breakfast and flour pudding, or duff, for dinner. Fri¬ 
day the same as Tuesday, bean soup. Saturday codfish and 
potatoes or rice. Sunday’s bill of fare was the same, ex¬ 
cept that our flour pudding or duff had a few raisins which 
made it plum pudding. Every night we had a quart of a 
mixture called tea, boiled the same as the coffee, with 


19 


molasses for sweetening. Such was the bill of fare through 
the outward bound voyage, and I shall refer no more to 
that. I got used to it and enjoyed all my meals. I 
also enjoyed cutting a piece of raw salt pork from the 
harness cask at ten o’clock at night, and walking the 
deck with a hard navy biscuit and the pork. A barrel 
of navy bread was kept in the steerage and forecastle, 
and we were allowed as much as we could eat; and it 
was very good on the voyage out. 

As soon as we crossed the Gulf Stream and got into 
steady weather, the mate sent me to the lee wheel to ac¬ 
custom myself to steering. The man at the weather wheel, 
or the one who really did the steering let me take his 
place and I soon learned how to keep the ship to its course. 
I had sailed boats, and knew very well what it was to sail 
a course, or on a wind, the only difference being that the 
ship steered by a wheel, the boats by a tiller; and very 
soon I was told to take my regular trick at the wheel, 
which is two hours at a time. 

Captain Howland was an aristocratic captain. He 
came on deck at stated times and always wore kid gloves. 
He was a very stem-faced man. He was a good navigator, 
but not much of a sailor, having taken command without 
going through the forecastle. He would never allow him¬ 
self forward of the mainmast and very seldom spoke to a 
sailor, but gave all his orders to the chief mate, and kept 
strict discipline. 

I think that we had been at sea over two weeks before 
I had a word with my sister. My brother had come once 
or twice forward of the mainmast to have a short chat with 
me, but one day when I was at the wheel and the captain 
down below, my sister came and spoke to me, and we had 
quite a little talk together, though it was contrary to the 


20 


rules of the ship to talk to the man at the wheel. I have 
no doubt I could have had more communication with both 
my brother and my sister if I had chosen to do so, but I 
was afraid to do anything to show that I looked for favors 
on account of having a brother and sister on board. The 
men liked me all the better for it. They saw that I could 
do my duty and more than a boy’s duty and that I did 
not put on any airs. My sister thought Captain Howland 
was an ideal captain; and a few years afterwards when I 
was to take charge, she told me I must pattern after Cap¬ 
tain Howland, be dignified and keep to the quarter¬ 
deck. I told her I should be captain of my ship and go 
to any part of it I wished to; that the quarter-deck was 
not big enough for me; and that I had never worn a pair 
of gloves and did not intend to, especially on board a ship. 

As the weeks flew by I became more in love with my 
sea life, and I got along well with officers and men. I was 
perfectly fearless. I could hold my weight with one hand, 
and I was as much at home on the royal yard as on deck. 

One afternoon the watch on deck to which I belonged 
were sent aloft to bend a new main-topgallant sail. It 
was blowing fresh. The sail was hoisted up to the mast¬ 
head by the bunt, or middle. The third mate was out on 
the topgallant yard, and I took the earing—a piece of 
ratline stuff that fastens the sail to the yard arm—and ran 
out on top of the yard with it to the third mate. He 
turned pale to see me, and told me to get down on the 
foot rope as quickly as possible. While there bending the 
sail, the other watch were called from below to reef the 
topsail. It was blowing a gale and it was as much as we 
could do to get the sail bent and furled. I thought nothing 
of what I had done and after the sails were reefed and 
everything made snug, it was my watch below and I went 


21 


down in the forecastle to talk with the men. I had hardly 
got there when the second mate called for me, and gave 
me an awful scolding and told me that if I attempted 
to run out on a topgallant yard again, he would take my 
hide off. At the same time I could see he thought well of 
me for doing it; and my brother afterward told me that 
Mr. Howard said I was the smartest boy he ever saw on 
board a ship. I hate to say so much of myself, but it is 
partly to show why I was promoted so quickly to a com¬ 
mand. 

There was only one time I think, that I growled about 
the living. We were put on an allowance of water, a 
gallon a day. One quart had to go to the cook for coffee 
and one for tea. It would not have been so bad if the 
water had been good. The water was stowed between- 
decks in two-hundred-gallon casks, and the bungs were 
left out to give it air. Now the sailmaker owned a mon¬ 
goose which he had carried with him two or three voyages. 
It was a beautiful animal, something between a squirrel 
and a weasel, and it was very tame, and the sailmaker 
thought very much of it. One day it disappeared and 
could not be found anywhere. Some weeks after it was 
gone, the sailmaker, who had the dealing out of the water, 
broached a new cask, which smelled horribly and tasted 
worse. But we had to drink it. We went to the mate 
about it and asked for better water, but he said it was 
good enough, it was only fermenting and would soon be 
pure and good. We had to drink that cask of water till 
we got near the bottom. Then the pump began to bring 
up hairs which resembled those of the departed mongoose, 
and on examination the poor remains of the animal were 
brought forth. We had been drinking extract of mon¬ 
goose. Some of the boys were made sick when they 


22 


found it out, but my stomach was not affected, though I 
was glad to know we were going to have better water to 
drink. 

After a short passage of some eighty days we arrived at 
Anjer, a small village on the coast of Java, about eighty 
miles from Batavia. Here all ships stop on their way 
out to and home from China. The natives raise chickens 
and ducks and fruit of all kinds,—bananas, oranges, 
mangosteens, limes, pineapples, and cocoanuts. We were 
allowed all fruits but the pineapple. The officers were 
told not to allow one to come on board, as they are con¬ 
sidered very dangerous, giving the men dysentery, and in 
Batavia the foreigners will not eat them without soaking 
them in brandy over night. After living on salt beef and 
pork, we were hungry enough for the delicious fruit and 
some fresh beef. Green turtles are very plentiful, and 
we had one or two tastes of turtle steak. They are very 
good for cabin stores, as they require nothing to eat and 
no water to drink, being stowed away on their backs with 
a wet swab under their heads, and keeping fat for three 
or four weeks. 

We filled our empty casks with good water and got 
under weigh, and proceeded through the Java Sea into the 
Banda Sea, out into the Pacific Ocean, through Dampier 
Straits. It is a much longer way to go than through the 
China Sea, but at that season of the year the north-east 
monsoon blew heavily, and it would have been almost 
impossible to beat up against the wind and currents 
setting strong to the south-west. The Horatio was then 
the fastest of the East India ships, but she could not make 
over ten miles an hour. However, we arrived in Hong 
Kong in one hundred days, the shortest time by the east¬ 
ern passage that had been made up to that date. It was 


23 


the 13th of February when we anchored in the harbor of 
Hong Kong. This island had only been handed over 
to the English a short time before, and we merely stopped 
for orders and then proceeded to Macao, forty miles to 
the west. Macao was a Portuguese colony, but all the 
American and English firms at Canton had branch houses 
there, and lived there a good deal of the time during the 
summer months. It is an open harbor, but has good 
anchorage and is safe in the north-east monsoon. 
Some four miles from the anchorage the opium ships were 
anchored in the river Typa, out of sight from Macao, 
and there they smuggled opium to the Chinese, who came 
in large, fast boats to get it. It was a favorite place for 
the mates to go and spend the evening, as they had plenty 
of drink and eatables and card playing. The captain 
lived on shore. We boys, four of us, had nothing to do 
but take care of the boats; and pretty much every evening 
after supper the boat’s crew were called away to take one 
or two of the mates aboard the opium ships. It was not a 
hard run into the Typa River, but coming back at any 
hour between midnight and two o’clock in the morning, 
with a strong head wind and rough sea, was anything but 
fun, and very hard work, and we were very wet and cold 
when we got on deck. We generally had a good time in 
the forecastle while the mates enjoyed themselves in the 
cabin of the opium smuggler; and as we had very little 
to do in the daytime but to pull ashore to get orders from 
the captain, and often when we had to wait were taken 
up to the merchants’ house and had a good dinner given to 
us, we enjoyed the life very much. 

While laying in Macao Roads, the men were employed 
on the rigging, sending down the topgallant masts, scraping 
and painting them, cleaning ship, inside and out, painting 


24 


and putting her in beautiful shape before going to Wham¬ 
poa to load for home. After the masts were all on end, 
the rigging had to be tarred down, and the boat’s crew 
were called to do the light work. I was the lightest boy 
on board, and I was given the job of tarring the small 
stays that run from the royal masthead to the opposite 
mast. I sat on a piece of board called a boatswain’s 
chair, which was made fast by a rope over the stay to be 
tarred, and a gantline rove through a block at the mast¬ 
head, and lowered from the deck. I did not dislike the 
job, but my hands when I got through were as black as 
the tar itself; and just as I got through the mate gave me 
an invitation from Russell & Co. to dine there with my 
brother and sister. I accepted, and on the day appointed 
went on shore dressed up in my best, and presented myself 
to my sister. When she looked at my hands she was 
terribly mortified, but my brother told her that every one 
knew what it was and that it was no discredit to me. I 
thought at one time she was going to protest against my 
going to the dinner table, but she came at last to look at it 
as a sort of joke, and I went in to the table with her: and, 
though as many as twenty people sat down to dinner, 
none of them took any notice of my hands. I had a 
splendid dinner, for the foreigners and Americans lived 
on the best the land afforded, and that was as good as 
could be had in any part of the world. The fish market 
cannot be surpassed for the different varieties and the 
flavor of the fish, both salt water and fresh, and the 
Chinese cooks are adepts in cooking them. The turkeys 
are brought mostly from Manila, and they are shut up 
in cellars and fattened. All sorts of game are in abun¬ 
dance, and the Chinamen are famous for their rich and 
juicy capons, which are almost as large as turkeys. The 


25 


fruits are also abundant—bananas, oranges, and peaches— 
—and very cheap. 

Soon after this dinner, the captain had orders to proceed 
to Whampoa to get ready to take in cargo for home. We 
were very glad to leave Macao, for in the harbor the ship 
rolled in the rough sea almost as badly as at sea, and 
water casks and spars had to be lashed all the time. 
Whampoa is ninety miles from Macao and twelve miles 
from Canton. The ships can go no farther up the river, 
and the cargo is brought down in chop boats or large 
covered lighters, which will carry from eight hundred to 
fifteen hundred half chests of tea at a load. 

We had a very good trip up, having a fair wind and a 
flood tide which took us up beyond the Boge forts, about 
forty miles from Whampoa, where we anchored to wait 
over the ebb tide, which runs very strong. Here we lay 
at anchor some six hours and the next tide carried us to 
our anchorage at Whampoa. The river here is very 
narrow, and ships have to moor with two anchors, and it 
was a long job in those days when ships had a common 
windlass worked with handspikes. The ship runs up the 
river, and if a good, strong breeze blows she makes a 
running moor; that is, she lets go the port anchor, on 
which a large quantity of chain has been overhauled; 
as soon as the chain is taut more is paid out, till there are 
ninety fathoms out, when a slight sheer is given and the 
other anchor is let go, and as soon as the ship begins to go 
astern, chain is paid out and the first chain is hove in, till 
there are forty-five fathoms on the second chain, and then 
she lies in the middle. On the flood tide she rides with 
the first anchor let go; on the ebb tide she rides at the 
second anchor, and swings around in her own length. 

Here the captain left, and the boat's crew were sum- 


26 


moned to pull him up to Canton, where he took up his 
abode with Russell & Co., the consignees of the ship. 
It was a pull of twelve miles and with the tide against us 
was a hard pull; but we had had a good apprenticeship to 
the oars at Macao, and we did not mind it very much, es¬ 
pecially as we were all sent up to the house and had a 
good breakfast or dinner or supper, depending on the 
time we got to the city. 

The second day after we anchored in Whampoa, we 
had to unmoor ship after six p.m., and haul alongside of 
an English ship to discharge our pig lead. It is so long ago 
that I have forgotten the precise way of doing the work, 
but it was a smuggling job. Every ship had a mandarin 
or custom house officer in his boat alongside, or astern, to 
keep the ship from smuggling, but they were bribed on 
this occasion, and had gone on shore for the night, and 
the ship we were about to put the lead on board of had an 
open manifest, so that anything on her manifest was 
supposed to have been brought from England, and to 
have paid duties on her arrival. As it would not do to 
use our Chinese stevedores to do the work, the ship's 
crew had to do it, and it was one of the hardest night's 
work I ever did. Myself and three others were in the 
lower hold, and we had to pass the pigs of lead, which 
weighed sixty pounds each, up to a stage five feet above 
us, two of us at a time; then others passed them to 
another stage, and so on, on to the deck of the English 
ship. At first the pigs of lead felt very light,—sixty pounds 
between two of us,—but they grew very heavy after we 
had heaved them for two or three hours, notwithstanding 
we were relieved every half hour, and had a half hour’s 
rest; before morning it was as much' as we could do to 
lift a bar to the staging. But there was no help for it. 


27 


we had to do it. However, everything comes to an end 
and the last pig was finally sent up. This, however, did 
not end the job, for we had to haul the ship back to her 
anchorage and remoor her in her old berth, which was hard 
work but different, and it was a relief to get out in the air; 
but we did not get our breakfast till very late in the morn¬ 
ing. I have never forgotten that night’s work; we were 
allowed four hours’ sleep after we had our breakfast, 
and I for one never knew what sleep was until that time. 

After this smuggling job was over, we boys were sent to 
boat’s duty again. We had to pull to Canton twelve 
miles, generally starting from three to seven o’clock in the 
morning, according as the tide served, for it made a great 
difference whether we pulled with the tide or against it. 
With a good, strong flood tide we would go up in an hour 
and a half; then against the tide it would take us four 
hours and more. We had a good deal of fun, for over 
a dozen boats would start about the same time, and we 
used to race to see who would get there first; and as soon 
as we arrived at the jetty at Canton we were met by 
Chinese runners, and taken up to Hog Lane, China street, 
old China street, where they gave us tea and pork, chops 
and boiled eggs. This they did to secure our patronage 
on the day when we had our liberty, with money to spend 
in their store. After eating a good breakfast with the 
Chinamen, we went around to our consignees and had 
another hearty breakfast, which was always prepared for 
the boat’s crew and officer, and was always a good one, 
and after a pull of twelve miles without any breakfast we 
could stow away a good deal of provisions. Sometimes 
we were delayed in Canton till after dinner or lunch time, 
when we had a good dinner, at the consignee’s, but more 
often we had to pull back to the ship, and very often had 


28 


to make another trip to Canton in the afternoon, which 
made forty-eight miles of rowing in twelve or fifteen hours; 
and one day we made three trips, or seventy-two miles 
in twenty-four hours, which is a pretty hard day’s work. 
The worst of that day’s work was getting back to the ship 
at midnight, and finding that we could not go below be¬ 
cause the ship was being smoked to kill the rats. It was 
raining hard and it was difficult to find a good dry place 
where we could sleep, so we lay down on deck, with a 
stick of wood for a pillow and a monkey jacket over us, 
and slept as the weary sleep. 

Ships always have more or less rats on board, and it is 
necessary to clear them out before taking in cargo. To 
do this, the hatches are all closed, and the seams all pasted 
over with paper, as are the cabin doors, skylights and 
portholes, and the ship made air-tight. Then large fires 
are built under the fore, main and after hatches on the 
ballast, with charcoal and sulphur. Tubs of water are 
placed near the fires and holes bored in the hatches so 
that a lookout can be kept for any accident; then the 
hatches are sealed up tight and kept closed for twenty- 
four hours. The fires burn up the air, and the rats come 
from every part of the ship and go for the fires, for the air 
lasts at the fires longer than elsewhere, and besides they 
want water; and there they die. The poor Chinese know 
when a ship is being smoked, and when the hatches will 
be opened, and they gather around the ship to pick up 
the rats when they are thrown overboard. As soon as the 
rats are caught they are skinned and cleaned and hung 
up in the boats. It is some time after the hatches are 
opened before you can go below with safety, and when the 
air is purified, every part of the ship is searched for the 
dead rats which are found everywhere, though the largest 


29 


number are around the water tubs and the fires. Some 
ships will throw out a thousand dead rats. I could not 
state how many we caught, but I think there were over 
two hundred. While on the subject of vermin, I may 
tell of the pest of cockroaches which are really more 
troublesome than the rats, for they eat the labels off the 
tea chests. They will gnaw your toe nails and eat your 
boots and your oil clothing, and will fly in your faces; on 
one occasion they drove all the watch below on deck. 
They could not sleep for the numbers that kept crawling 
over them and flying about. To drive them away Chinese 
are hired, who come on board with rattan bushel baskets 
which they fill with bait. In one day and night they 
have been known to catch over thirty bushels of cock¬ 
roaches. This is a fact and any one who has sailed in a 
China ship in old times will vouch for the truth of it. 

After the ship is cleared of rats and roaches, the ballast 
is trimmed and the Chinese stevedores take charge of the 
hold; and it is most interesting to see them stow the tea 
away with boxes of firecrackers and mats of cassia. They 
make such close stowing that you can hardly get a case 
knife between the chests. 

A few days before the cargo is completed, half of the 
crew are given liberty and take the boats and go to Canton. 
The Chinese shopkeepers know they are coming, and their 
runners meet them at the jetty and call out, “Come my 
shop, catchee tea, pork, chops, boil ’em eggs!” And 
some of the men go to one shop and some to others, and 
spend their money at the shop where they are treated. 
Very little tea is drunk, for these Chinamen know well 
enough that sailors want something stronger than that, 
so they give them gin, brandy, or anything they call for. 
Very few sailors in those days left Canton without help 


30 


after the day was done; fortunately they had but little 
money to spend. The next day the other half of the crew 
had liberty. When my turn came and I had ten dollars 
given me by the Captain, as my brother was in Canton, I 
spent the day at Russell & Co.’s. Had a good breakfast, 
lunch and dinner and enjoyed the day very much. 
Bought presents to take home and invested the fifty dollars 
given me by my father in pongee or silk handkerchiefs. 
The liberty day being over, all hands were employed 
bending sails and getting ready for sea. The water casks 
we filled from the river, which is very muddy. At night 
two casks were filled and the next morning when the mud 
had settled, the clear water was run into other casks and 
the mud washed out of the first two. Then they were 
filled up again and emptied, and so on, till all our casks 
were filled with good, clean water; and it was very 
good too. 

As the ship was now nearly loaded, the boys who had 
been living in between-decks had to go to the forecastle 
and live with the sailors. There not being room enough 
or bunks to sleep in we had to turn in and out, one 
watch being on deck while the other watch took their 
bunks. I was fortunate in being messmate with a very 
clean, neat Dutchman, also a good sailor, and we got 
along very well together, but it was not pleasant to turn 
into a bed that was hot and had just been slept in, especially 
in hot weather. However, one gets used to most every¬ 
thing and I had the faculty of putting up with whatever 
came to hand, and could stand almost anything, though I 
growled with the rest for the fun of the thing,—a sailor 
cannot get along without a little of that. This would be 
nothing if it went no further, but the forecastle of a mer¬ 
chant ship was a perfect hell in those days. When the 


31 


watch went below at eight o’clock they would all light their 
pipes and turn in, and then each one would try to see 
which could be the most profane. They would begin and 
damn the captain, and then the officers, and at last each 
other, till their pipes were out and they went off to sleep. 

I think it was the last of April when we got under weigh, 
and with twenty or thirty sampans, or China boats towing 
us, we proceeded through the shipping, and after crossing 
the first bar made sail and dropped with the tide till we 
got room to work the ship. Then with a light wind we 
soon passed the Boca Tigris forts, and in a few days were 
out in the China Sea, homeward bound. A ship with a 
tea cargo is very buoyant and is not deep in the water 
and sails very well. We passed Anjer and through the 
Straits of Sunda, taking the southeast trade winds. 
Running before them made rapid progress across the 
Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope. About 
all I remember of this passage was that soon after leaving 
Java we were put on short allowance of salt beef and pork; 
the salt provisions having been sold by the officers to pay 
their bills in Whampoa, unbeknown to the captain. From 
Madagascar to the Cape we had variable winds. 

Off Cape Agulhas, where the current runs very strong 
to the westward, which is a great help to ships bound 
around the Cape, the winds are almost always ahead and 
blow heavily most of the time; but it raises a very short 
and high sea in which the vessel makes very bad weather 
of it. The Horatio was a short ship and in this sea 
she would almost stand on end sometimes,—the sailors 
called her “the pile driver.” As usual we had heavy 
weather, and I was called to go aloft and furl the main- 
royal, the ship pitching at a fearful rate; all hands were 
shortening sail, and I had just about got the sail fast when 


32 


the vessel pitched very suddenly and so deep that the 
fore and main-topgallant mast went over the side. I 
went over with the main and, fortunately, caught the 
topmast rigging without being hurt. I got down quickly 
and I think I was badly scared, for I thought the ship was 
going down bow first. It was a very narrow escape, for 
if I had not held on hard I should have been thrown a 
long way from the ship and probably have been drowned. 
After sail was reduced it was late in the evening before we 
got the wreck of the masts on deck, and as the masts 
were not wanted till the gale abated, we did not send the 
new ones up, but had them all ready. 

While close in to Cape Agulhas we hove the lead with 
two fish hooks attached and brought up two fine fish, 
and every time we tacked ship we hove the lead again 
and brought up fish, catching enough for all hands, and 
they tasted good, for we had been on short allowance for 
a long time. We sighted Cape of Good Hope, and after 
getting to the westward of it took a southeast wind, and 
with all sail set before the wind we made rapid head¬ 
way into fine weather. 

We were all anxious to get home, for the crew were 
worked from morning to night scraping spars, painting 
ship inside and out, and getting ready for port. There 
was nothing but grumbling on the part of the sailors, 
for we were daily being put on shorter allowance; the 
rice and beans gave out and we had nothing but salt beef 
and pork and very little of those. But the wind held 
good and about the middle of August we took a pilot off 
Sandy Hook and before night were alongside of the wharf. 

My brother Josiah was the only one to greet me, and I 
was very glad to see him. He told me there was no one 
at home but Ellen. My father and mother had gone to 


33 


\ermont and my sister Sarah had gone to England to 
spend a year with her sister Harriet, and the rest of the 
family were scattered at different summer resorts, so I 
made up my mind to go to London and see my sisters. 

The day after we arrived I went down to the Horatio 
to be paid off. I had been doing ordinary seaman’s work 
the whole voyage and I thought I ought to have some 
wages paid me; but no, I had shipped as a boy with no 
wages, and there was no help for me. I felt badly and 
very much disappointed. Then, as I intended shipping 
on board the Toronto , Captain Griswold, I asked Captain 
Howland to give me a recommendation, but he said he 
never gave a written recommendation to any one. I was 
mad enough to hit him and left as quickly as possible. 
The next day I went on board of the Toronto to see if I 
could get a berth as ordinary seaman. The Captain was 
in the cabin and I asked the steward if I could see him. 
He asked what my name was, and I told him. He said, 
“ Charley Low step right in, for Captain Howland has 
been here and given you the best character a boy ever had; 
he says you are the smartest boy he ever had on board 
his ship.” Upon hearing this I felt a good deal better 
towards my old Captain, and passed into the cabin and 
asked the Captain if there was any chance for me as ordi¬ 
nary seaman. He was a man of very few words and I 
liked his looks. He said that my old Captain had been 
there, and that he was glad to give me a berth, and he 
made out an order for me to go and sign the shipping 
articles. I felt as light as a feather, and thanking him, 
went at once to the shipping office and signed as ordinary 
seaman, at eleven dollars a month and two months’ ad¬ 
vance, which I pocketed. I then went to my brother’s 
office and told him I had shipped on board the packet 


34 


ship Toronto , and was to sail in five days. He was very 
sorry and tried to persuade me not to go so soon; said 
that the family would soon be at home and would be 
much disappointed in not finding me. But it was of no 
use, and in seven days from the time I passed Sandy 
Hook I was on my way out. 

The Toronto was double the size of the Horatio and 
every spar and sail was heavy, so as to stand the heavy 
weather of the North Atlantic. She was fitted to carry 
one hundred cabin passengers and three or four hundred 
in the steerage. In those days there were no steamers 
and as every one had to go to Europe in these packets 
the cabins were beautifully furnished and the fare was as 
good as at any hotel in New York. We had a crew of 
thirty seamen and four ordinaries, no boys. The crew 
was made up of the hardest kind of men; they were 
called “hoosiers,” working in New Orleans or Mobile 
during the winter at stowing ships with cotton, and in 
the summer sailing in the packet ships. They were all 
good chantey men; that is, they could all sing at their 
work and were good natured and could work hard, but 
they did not care much about the officers and would not 
be humbugged or hazed. Besides this large crew, we had 
as steerage passengers twenty men from the ship Coro¬ 
mandel , an East India ship that had come home from a 
two years’ voyage, who were going to London on a spree. 
The steerage passage cost only “fifteen dollars and find 
themselves.” They were also a jolly set of fellows and 
when we reefed topsails or made sail they all joined in 
with us, so that our work was easy and we could reef and 
hoist all three topsails at once, with a different song for 
each one. In the dog watch, from six to eight in the 
evening, they would gather on the forecastle and sing 


35 


comic songs and negro melodies. There were two or 
three violins and accordions with them, and the time 
passed very much more pleasantly than on board the 
Horatio , where gambling was the order of the day; be¬ 
sides, after being on short allowance for two months I had 
as much as I could eat. The cook would have fared badly 
on board that ship if he had not done his best in making 
scouse and duff. But I was surprised one day. We had 
some fifty or more cabin passengers, and the first two or 
three days out they were seasick, but the steward had to 
provide for them as if they were well, with the result that 
we had lots of cabin fare sent to the forecastle: turkeys, 
chickens, mutton, beef, pies and puddings, and the salt 
beef and pork was not dealt out. It was a feast to me, 
but two days were too much for the men, and they went 
aft in a body and told the Captain they did not ship to 
eat “cabin grub,” and they would do no more work till 
they had their salt beef and pork again. The captain 
said nothing but “ All right, my men, you shall have your 
beef and pork.” I thought they were big fools, for if they 
had waited a little longer they would have had no more 
cabin fare, for the passengers soon got well and had sea 
appetites and could all eat their allowance. In two or 
three days more the sailors growled because they did not 
get any of the good things, but that is sailor-like, they 
must growl about something, no matter what it is; it is 
their nature. I had no reason to complain, for the steward 
took a great fancy to me and many pieces of chicken 
and pie and pudding he kept for me in the pantry, calling 
me to him when I had my watch below. 

We had very favorable winds, and after a run of seven¬ 
teen days, took a pilot off Land’s End in the English 
Channel. In going up the Thames we had a pilot whom 


36 


the sailors called “Staysail Jack.” We had to drop up 
with the tide, which was done by placing the ship broad¬ 
side to the tide. To keep her so, we had to haul out the 
spanker to bring her to and haul down the fore staysail; 
and every few minutes it was “ Brail up the spanker and 
haul down the staysail,” and vice versa. And this was 
kept up till we hauled alongside of the St. Katherine 
dock. 

The London docks are all enclosed, and you can only 
enter at high tide, slack water; and as soon as the ship 
is in, the gates are shut. It was very late in the evening 
when we entered, and while hauling in, the two crews 
united in singing, and made such a noise that the dock 
master requested the mates to stop them, as they would 
wake up the whole of London. But when the sailors heard 
this they only sang the louder and only stopped when the 
ship was made fast. 

There is, or was, much smuggling done by the sailors 
in tobacco, and a number of them had stored a lot of it 
in the bunt of the topsails, intending to get it when they 
had a chance to take it ashore. What was their surprise 
the next morning, when the Custom-house officers came 
on board and immediately went aloft and loosed the sails! 
Down came the tobacco, which was seized and taken to 
the Custom-house and confiscated. Then every sailor 
had to give up his tobacco to the mate, who weighed it 
and gave the men a receipt for it, and every two or three 
days dealt it out to them for use. Thus it was evident 
that there was an informer on board. The men supposed 
it must be a certain sanctimonious old fellow. So they 
brought him to trial in the forecastle, had a jury, and ap¬ 
pointed me as judge. It was great sport. He was con¬ 
victed and sentenced to receive a dozen lashes, and it is 


37 


needless to say he was an enemy of mine from that time 
on. But the sailors drove him out of the ship. 

The crew of the Coromandel left at once, and it was 
only a few days before their money was gone, and they 
had to ship and go to sea. Some of them came on board 
our ship and begged for a part of our grub. They were 
a sorry lot of men; they had their spree, and dearly 
they paid for it. 

A few nights after we were docked we were roused out 
of our sleep by a pounding on the scuttle and a loud voice 
calling out “Tumble up there, tumble up, your ship is 
on fire.” We were not long dressing; and coming on 
deck we found the cook’s galley all of a blaze, but we 
manned the pump and with plenty of buckets we put it 
out, just as the first fire engine came alongside. After 
this, fires were forbidden except in the morning to get our 
breakfast with; for dinner, we were sent to an eating 
house on Ratcliffe Highway, a short distance outside 
the dock gate. I only remember that we had good feed 
and that part of it was a pound of American cheese and 
a quart of beer for each man. 

We had a great many tons of these cheeses on board as 
freight. Some weighed one hundred and fifty to two 
hundred pounds and were very ugly things to handle. 
The sailors discharged the cargo and hove the sling loads 
up by a winch at the mainmast. If very heavy we took 
the load to the capstan; and while we were heaving away, 
at eleven in the morning, the sailors struck up “ Roll and 
go for that white pitcher, roll and go,” and the steward 
would come up with a great pitcher filled with rum, and 
give each of us a drink. The same thing was repeated at 
four in the afternoon. This was varied when we were 
taking in cargo, which consisted of a great deal of railroad 


38 


iron and we had to pass it in from a lighter alongside 
and then down the hold. It was terribly hard work, and 
instead of the rum, a quart of beer from the tap room was 
brought to each one at eleven in the morning and 
four in the afternoon. I do not think we could have held 
out without it. This was the second time I had as hard 
work as I could stand; the first was in China, handling 
pig lead all night. 

I had been in London a week without trying to see my 
sisters. I did not know where to find them. One Friday 
afternoon I was in the forward house cleaning paint brushes, 
when the Captain came along and just behind him Mr. 
John Hillard, my brother-in-law. I was glad to see him 
and he told me to make myself clean if I could, and go 
home with him. The Captain said I could go and stay 
until Monday morning. I immediately proceeded to 
wash and put on my best clothes. Now I had what I 
thought was a stunning suit of clothes, namely, a short 
blue jacket and trousers of blue cloth made in regular 
sailor style (tight around the hips, small at the knee and 
wide enough at the bottom to cover my boot from heel 
to toe), with a white shirt having a rolling collar, a big 
black neck handkerchief and a blue navy cap. I thought 
I was handsome as a picture. 

Well, we started, and after a long time in an omnibus 
we reached the street called Marylebone Lane, and got 
out and walked a block or two, when we found the house. 
I was greeted most affectionately by my two sisters and I 
was happy enough to be with them. At dinner time I 
think I astonished them all with my appetite. However, 
the next day my sister Harriet, that is, Mrs. Hillard, 
took me to walk in one of the parks, and when we got 
back she said “ Charley, I cannot go to walk with you in 


39 


that dress, every one was staring at us. You are about 
John’s size, I will get a suit of his clothes for you to wear 
while you are here.” Well, the next morning I found a full 
suit of clothes in my room. They were not a full suit by 
any means, for the fashion was to wear trousers tight all 
the way down the legs. Everything fitted well enough, 
but I felt very uncomfortable, though Mr. Hillard and my 
sisters said they were lovely and I looked fine in them. 
We went to walk and I expected every minute to hear 
them rip; and when we got home I told my sister I could 
not go to walk in those togs, for every one was looking at 
me. And I did not go again; I preferred to stay in the 
house. The ship was in London for over four weeks and 
I took the liberty to leave every Friday morning and stay 
till Monday with my sisters. They took me to the British 
Museum and to the Tower of London and through the 
different parks. I saw the Queen and Prince Albert, but 
had no conversation with them. 

At last the ship was ready for sea and I bade my sisters 
good-bye. The weather was getting very cold, with heavy 
fogs every day, so I drew a month’s wages and bought 
some heavy underwear, for it was now late in November 
and it would be well on in December before we reached 
home. We began to realize the toughness of a voyage 
westward as soon as we left the mouth of the Thames. 
Strong westerly gales met us and for fifteen days we were 
beating in the English Channel before we left Land’s End 
astern. We hardly had a whole watch below during that 
time. It was “All hands shorten sail,” or “All hands 
tack ship,” or “ Make sail,” and we were wet to the skin 
most of the time. Our clothes were all wet and we would 
take them off, wring them out and put on others that were 
less wet. After leaving the Channel we took an easterly 


40 


wind, and we had a short passage to Fire Island, where 
we took a pilot. We were going along finely, when all 
hands were called to shorten sail; and in a short time the 
wind came out from the northwest. We lost most of 
our sails, and were driven off into the Gulf Stream, and 
one week afterward, again off Fire Island, we hailed the 
same pilot boat from which we had taken our pilot before. 
This time we managed to make Sandy Hook and a steam 
tug took us to the wharf at New York. I was very glad 
to get ashore, for it is very hard to keep warm at sea in 
freezing weather, especially when aloft, with the sails 
half frozen and your hands so stiff that you can hardly 
hold on. There is no fun in it. 

Soon after I left home for London my brother William 
came home from China with Captain Nat Palmer, in the 
ship Paul Jones. During the voyage Captain Palmer 
had had a model of a clipper ship made and my brother 
took him to my brother Abbot and persuaded him to 
have a ship built after the model. It was to be built like 
a man-of-war, with solid bulwarks and pierced for sixteen 
guns—eight on a side, the intention being to sell her to the 
Chinese. She was to be very fast. This vessel, when I 
returned from London, was being built at Bell & Brown’s 
ship-yard. 

x4fter being in New York for a day or two I went down 
to see how much wages were coming to me. I knew 
there was but very little, for I had had two months* 
advance and another month’s pay in London, and the 
voyage only lasted about two weeks over three months. 
Yet I was hardly prepared for the statement handed me, 
which brought me in debt to the ship for over eleven 
dollars. That Captain who was so pleased to let me go 
and see my sisters, was pleased to charge me one dollar 


41 


and fifty cents for every day I was absent, Sunday and 
all, to pay for a man in my place. I was getting along 
famously—I had earned in fourteen months the enormous 
sum of forty-three dollars. However, I had a good home 
to go to, and my father gave me a fine suit of shore clothes 
and I had all the money I wanted from my brothers, while 
on shore. But after being ashore four weeks I longed 
for the sea again and about the middle of January I 
shipped on board the Courier , Captain Wolfe, for Rio 
Janeiro, with the promise of a third mate’s berth on the 
Houqua. That was the name of a Chinese merchant, 
a great friend of my brothers and of all Americans, and 
the new ship was to be named for him. 

Pardon Taylor, my most intimate friend and companion 
for many years, was so lonesome that he decided to go to 
sea with me. I shipped as ordinary seaman and Taylor 
shipped as boy. The Courier was a small ship of about 
three hundred and fifty tons, very fast, and a beautiful 
sea boat, but after being on board the Toronto it seemed 
child’s play to handle her royal and topgallant sails. She 
also carried skysails and royal studding-sails. Captain 
Wolfe was a very kind and pleasant man. He had good 
feed, and “watch and watch,” with a very respectable 
crew of twelve men, four ordinary seamen and four boys, 
cook and steward and two mates, carpenter and sailmaker. 

We left Sandy Hook with cold weather and a fresh 
westerly wind which, the second day out, increased to a 
heavy gale with a snowstorm. The ship under three 
close-reefed topsails and reefed foresail ran before it, and 
she did beautifully, and we soon ran across the Gulf 
Stream and had good weather. My friend Taylor had a 
hard time of it; he was fearfully seasick and I was afraid 
he would not live. The Captain was very kind and took 


42 


him into the cabin, but he never got over it till we arrived 
in Rio Janeiro, when he went to work and worked hard; 
but as soon as he got to sea again he was taken as sick as 
ever, and on arriving in New York he was more dead than 
alive. He afterward went to New Orleans to enter his 
father’s store. He went by sea and came near dying, so 
that the doctors told him he must never try it again; and 
he never did. This was one of the worst cases of sea¬ 
sickness I ever heard of in all my sea going. 

We had a very short passage of thirty-eight days to 
Rio Janeiro, and almost as soon as we anchored and as 
soon as the ship was entered in the Custom-house, we went 
to work discharging our cargo of some nine thousand 
barrels of flour. The crew had to do the most of the 
work. To show the work we did, I will say that in eleven 
days we discharged nine thousand barrels of flour and 
took in some ten thousand sacks of coffee. Negroes took 
the coffee in and passed it down the hold. In the daytime 
they lightered the coffee from shore and we worked all 
night storing it away. This was my third experience of 
tough, hard work. The thermometer was over 100° in 
the hold, and we had to work without any clothes, passing 
or sliding the heavy bags along greased planks to the ends 
of the ship. It became easier as the ship filled up, but it 
was fearfully hard work and glad enough we were when 
the loading was completed and we were given a day on 
shore. Some four or five of us had quite an experience. 
We had been on shore during the day and evening, and 
had become somewhat noisy in a saloon, when some 
gendarmes came and took on us board a Brazilian re¬ 
ceiving-ship, where we spent the rest of the night and were 
offered good terms to enlist in the Brazilian navy. But 
we sent word to the American Consul how we had been 


43 


entrapped, and very soon the Consul and Captain Wolfe 
came on board with our Protections, and took us on board 
the Courier. In those days every American, before he 
went to sea, had to go to the Custom-house and get a Pro¬ 
tection from the United States Government. Before I 
shipped in the Horatio I had been duly measured, and 
stood five feet eleven and a half inches in my stockings, 
and that measurement with the color of the eyes and hair 
(and any distinguishing mark), was placed in this docu¬ 
ment. When I shipped it was given to the Captain of 
the ship to take care of and it was lucky I had kept track 
of it. 

The next day we got under weigh and proceeded to sea. 
I only remember one incident in regard to the voyage 
home, and that occurred in the North Atlantic just after 
crossing the line. It was quite calm, but there was con¬ 
siderable swell on. Two of us were sent over the bows 
on a plank to scrape the paint off near the hawse pipe. 
To keep the stage close to the bows we had a line made 
fast to it and passed through the hawse pipe. We had 
been at work for some time when the breeze freshened 
and we began to get very near to the water, and at last the 
mate called us in. The ship was diving deeper every 
minute, but to get the stage in, the rope that held it had to 
be cast off. So I went over the bows to cast it off, when 
just as I had cast it clear, the ship gave a pitch and went 
bows under, washing me clear of the stage and so high up 
that I caught the back rope to the martingale and saved 
myself from going overboard altogether. In the mean 
time, the man on the bows sang out “ Man overboard,” 
and went aft with the rest to square the main yard to heave 
the ship to, but I was soon on the forecastle and made 
myself known before anything was done. 1 had a good 


44 


soaking, but it was warm weather and I did not mind that. 
However, it was a narrow escape and the mate and 
Captain congratulated me. 

We had a longer passage home, of some forty-eight days. 
Light winds and calms and a heavily laden ship delayed 
us. The voyage was one of the pleasantest I ever made. 

On my arrival I found the Houqua had been launched, 
and was being fitted for sea at Brown & Bell’s ship-yard. 
I remained a few weeks at liberty; when my brother told 
me I was to go as third officer of the Houqua and wished 
me to go on duty at once. There was a very smart fellow 
on board the Courier with me and he wanted to go in 
the same ship; so I got him a berth as ordinary seaman, 
and we both went up and reported to the chief mate in 
charge. The ship was taking in pig lead, as all ships 
carried that in the lower hold. The mate set us to work 
taking it in, and we worked all day at it, much to my 
disgust. It was nearly seven o’clock when I got home, 
and I was in a very bad humor, and told my brother that 
I “did not care for a third mate’s berth if I had got to 
work as a stevedore while in port. I would rather go as 
seaman and join the ship when she went to sea, and have 
a good time while on shore.” After I told him what I 
had been set to work at, he said there must be some mis¬ 
take and he would see Captain Palmer about it. I 
would not go to the ship the next day but I went to the 
office and met Captain Palmer and he made it all right. 
Captain N. B. Palmer was a rough old sailor. He was 
determined to see me get along, and helped me more than 
any other man to know my duty as an officer and to fit 
me for a master, so I went to my duty again and in a 
few days the mate who had set me to work was discharged 
and a new one took his place. 


45 


The new mate, or chief officer, was a very different sort 
of man from the first one, who was a very tall, large man 
weighing over two hundred pounds. Thomas Hunt, who 
took his place, was a very short, stout man and was 
cross-eyed; you could not tell where he was looking. 
He said he was “born in the middle of the week, looking 
both ways for Sunday.” He was every inch a sailor, a 
strict disciplinarian and yet full of fun and very kind to 
the men as long as they did their duty; and men who 
know their duty will always do it cheerfully if they are 
treated like men. In a short time the ship was finished 
as far as the ship-yard was concerned, and towed down 
to Peck Slip to take in a cargo for China. Times had 
changed in the short interval since my coming home in 
the Horatio. Then the ships went out with almost no 
cargo but lead and coal, and now our ship was loaded 
with pig lead, lumber, cotton sheetings and naval stores, 
pitch, tar and turpentine. She was full, so there was no 
between-decks for the sailmaker, carpenter and boys. 
The boys had to go in the forecastle with the men, and a 
house over the main hatch was fitted up for the third mate,, 
carpenter and sailmaker. It was a good sized room and 
very comfortable. I have no data to tell when we sailed; 
I only remember that Captain N. B. Palmer had no su¬ 
perstition as to Friday’s being a bad day to sail, though at 
that time sailors objected to going to sea on Friday and 
many merchants were superstitious enough to wait for 
Saturday and even Sunday before sending their ships to 
sea. 

The Houqua was launched on Friday, was towed down 
town on Friday, went to sea on Friday and arrived in 
Hong Kong on Friday, but she was a very lucky ship 
for four years at any rate, and whether these coincidences 


46 


had anything to do with her subsequent bad luck some 
years after, I cannot say. Captain N. B. Palmer was 
Captain, Thomas Hunt chief mate, William Gardner of 
Boston second mate and I third mate. We had quite 
a number of passengers, but I remember only three who 
were prominent:—a Mr. Goldsmith, a Mr. Squires and 
Frank Hillard, a younger brother of Mr. John Hillard, 
my brother-in-law. He was a very nice young man and 
wrote very good poetry. 

We had a good send-off by our family and a large 
number of friends, who went down the bay with us. 
After getting to sea, our anchors stowed and our sails set, 
the usual routine was gone through for choosing watches. 
The Captain said but little, but Mr. Hunt had something 
to say to his watch. As I have said, he was cross-eyed, 
and when he told the men to look him straight in the eye 
they could not help laughing, and he said, “ All I want to 
tell you is, not to try and skulk behind the foremast, for I 
can see right around it. Now go below the watch.’’ 

I was in the mate’s watch and I was glad I was, for 
in the night-watches Mr. Hunt would tell me everything 
I was to set the men to work at the next day, and he in¬ 
structed me in all sorts of seamanship, from turning in 
a dead-eye to heaving a ship down. This latter informa¬ 
tion came in handy many years after and was of great 
service to me. As third mate I was really nothing but 
an able seaman; of course I bossed the jobs, but I had 
to help do the work the same as any seaman, and I learned 
more during my voyage as third mate than I had ever 
known before. Besides teaching me seamanship, Mr. 
Hunt, with the Captain’s knowledge, had me take my 
quadrant and take the sun at noon and work up the lati¬ 
tude by observation, and find the latitude and longitude 


47 


by dead reckoning. The Captain is the only one who 
finds the longitude by the chronometer. The mate keeps 
the dead reckoning and compares it with the Captain’s 
observations, sometimes every day—sometimes no oftener 
than once a week—it depends very much how the Captain 
and mate work together. Captain Palmer and Mr. Hunt 
got along splendidly and of course everything went off 
happily. 

In my watch below, the passengers used to come into 
the “ house on deck,” as it was called, and we would have 
a good smoke and spin yams and have a good time gen¬ 
erally. 

The ship made a fine passage of seventy-two days to 
Anjer, where we laid in a stock of chickens, turtles, yams, 
bananas, oranges and mangusteens. Captain Palmer was 
a believer in good feed, not alone for the cabin; he be¬ 
lieved in giving the sailors the very best of salt beef and 
pork and plenty of it; and everything else they had to eat 
was of the very best. There was no beef or pork thrown 
overboard from that ship. Here we filled our casks with 
fresh water brought by natives. After doing this we got 
under weigh and proceeded up the China Sea and sailed 
into Hong Kong, eighty-four days from New York—a 
splendid passage. 

We had been in Hong Kong but a few days when we 
started for Whampoa. After mooring ship the mate 
ordered the quarter boat, which was styled the Captain’s 
gig, as it was only used for him. As the boys had had no 
boating to do, I was ordered to take four of the ordinary 
seamen to man the boat and to go myself to look after 
them and to steer the boat. It was a great deal easier 
for me than when I was there before and had to do 
the rowing. We left the Captain in Canton and pulled 


48 


back to the ship and that was about the last of my 
boating. 

Captain Palmer was very fond of his ship and would 
rather live on board at Whampoa and have company, 
than stay in Canton. Besides there was a great change 
in the Captain’s duties. When Captain Howland was 
there he had much to do with the disposing of the cargo 
and buying the return cargo, but now the American houses, 
Russell & Co., Heard & Co. and Wetmore & Co. trans¬ 
acted all the business, and the Captain was only really 
wanted when the bills of lading were to be signed. He 
had a room on shore assigned to him and was welcome 
to come and stay as long as he liked, and when he did go 
he had a fast sampan, or Chinese boat, to take him up 
and bring him back. 

While the Houqua was building, a beautiful model of 
the ship was made at the yard to be presented to Houqua, 
the merchant for whom the ship was named. My brothers 
William and Edward were with Russell & Co. and Cap¬ 
tain Palmer took me with him when he went to present 
the model to Houqua. Some three or four others, of the 
house of Russell & Co., went with us to Houqua’s resi¬ 
dence opposite Canton and we were all received very 
cordially. After the presentation was over we were shown 
over his beautiful gardens and then had an elaborate 
lunch, some of it very good indeed, though some did not 
please my fancy. The ship was built to sell to the Chinese 
and Houqua was to sell her, but she was too small to suit 
the Government and so we had to load her and take her 
back to New York again. 

Soon after we arrived in Whampoa, the Montauh ar¬ 
rived. She was the second clipper built, and a very 
beautiful ship too, just about the size of the rflouqua , 


49 


and it was hard to tell which was the handsomer. Cap¬ 
tain McMichaels commanded her. He was a jolly old 
fellow and very fond of using big words. One day he 
had a large party from Canton to dine with him; it was 
shortly after canned oysters, clams and vegetables came 
into use, and he had some green peas and other vegetables 
on the table. During the dinner, they being much praised, 
Captain McMichaels said, “Yes, gentlemen, those vege¬ 
tables were put up in tin cans and diametrically sealed.” 
Every one knew the Captain meant hermetically sealed, 
but they had to laugh. 

All the ships had to lie a long time in port, and after 
the rigging was overhauled and tarred down and all was 
painted aloft, the hull was painted inside and out, the deck 
holystoned as white as snow, and then everything was kept 
in splendid order. They said that Captain McMichaels 
kept his decks so white that any one coming on board was 
followed by a boy with a wet swab to wipe up any foot¬ 
prints. 

This puts me in mind of a nice little time we once had 
on the Houqua, one Saturday afternoon, late, when we 
had just finished holystoning the decks and the paint on 
the bulwarks was hardly dry. The second mate had a 
fifty pound keg of black paint in the paint locker on one 
side of the bowsprit, under the topgallant forecastle. 
Unfortunately the sailors owned a large Borneo monkey 
or baboon, and he had been made fast on the bowsprit 
within reach of the paint. Like a monkey, always full of 
mischief, he upset the bucket of paint, which ran down 
the scuppers as far as the mainmast over the clean white 
deck. The second mate, as soon as it was found out, 
caught the monkey and swabbed the paint up with him 
till he would hold no more, and then threw him overboard. 


50 


but this made bad worse, for the monkey caught the side 
ladder hanging over by the main rigging and came up, 
and before any one could stop him, ran the whole length 
of the bulwarks, leaving the black paint all over the fresh 
straw-colored paint, and making an awful mess. The 
man who owned him caught him and hurried him into the 
forecastle, but it was “All hands to clean ship”; for the 
decks had to be scraped and wiped off and then painted 
again, for Sunday must find the ship in perfect order. 
As for the monkey, the men turned to and shaved him 
clean and he was the worst looking animal that was ever 
seen. The second mate was as mad a man as could be for 
a time, but he soon got over it after the ship was to rights 
again, and he never molested the monkey, who was a 
great pet. 

In connection with the Montauk I must mention a dream 
I had and its remarkable fulfilment. It was on our way 
up the China Sea. I dreamed that we were bound home 
and running a race with the Montauk. The second mate 
was sick and laid up in his room and I had to stand his 
watch. At four o’clock in the morning I came on deck to 
relieve the mate, Mr. Hunt. There was very little wind 
and he told me that I must look out, as squalls came up 
with little warning. Soon after he left the deck the wind 
hauled ahead and I braced the yards forward. I had no 
sooner got the yards trimmed than I had to brace again, 
and then again for the third time. The wind was still 
very light, but before we had finished bracing the main 
yards—I had the main brace in my hand, slacking away— 
I heard the wind whistling and I sung out, “ Let go the 
skysail and royal halyards.” At that minute the Captain 
and mate rushed out of the cabin and some one sung out 
that the main-topgallant mast was carried away. I said, 


51 


“It is not the main-topgallant mast; it can’t be.” As 
soon as I said it, I dropped the main brace and could not 
say another word. 

The next day I told the second mate, the steward, 
carpenter and sailmaker of my dream and thought no 
more of it. Four or five months after this we were on our 
way home and we were running a race with the Montauk, 
and the second mate was laid up and I was standing his 
watch, and at four o’clock in the morning I relieved him. 
The weather was hazy, the wind light, and I braced the 
yards three times; the third time a squall struck the 
ship. I sung out, “ Let go the skysail and royal halyards.” 
The Captain and Mr. Hunt rushed on deck, and some one 
sang out that the main-topgallant mast was gone, and I 
said, “It is not the main-topgallant mast; it can’t be,” 
and I dropped the rope in my hand and could not say 
another word, for then I remembered my dream. I was 
soon brought to my senses, however, by the mate’s sending 
me aloft with the men to send down the wreck. I had to 
go down to the second mate’s room to get some spun yam 
and he said, “Well, Low, your dream has come true.” 
All to whom I had told it remembered it, and the mate 
told the Captain, and so I got off very easy, as it was bound 
to be and no one could have hindered it. The accident 
occurred in or near the place where I had had the dream. 
How can any one account for such a dream? I had 
forgotten it completely, so it was of no use as a warning 
and did not save the spar. However, dreams of all kinds 
are a puzzle. Later on I shall tell of a dream that prob¬ 
ably saved the ship I was then in and the lives of all on 
board. 

The cargo all being on board, we got under weigh and 
proceeded down the river. As usual, a number of ships 


52 


sent a boat’s crew on board to help us, and fifteen or twenty 
sampans towed us across the second bar, where we made 
sail and sent off the boats. We had for passengers my 
brother William, Mr. Dow, Mr. Perkins, Mr. Battelle 
and Mr. Burdett. Mr. Dow, on a voyage from India, 
had been sunstruck and his mind was affected. The 
other passengers were a jolly set of fellows and kept up a 
lively pace all the way home. They had plenty of liquor 
on board and almost every evening they would get on 
deck and would sing songs and spin yarns till ten o’clock, 
when they had to retire, for no lights were allowed after 
that. Captain Palmerwould always absent himself till they 
got through their fun, but he never objected, but let them 
enjoy themselves. 

We had a very pleasant passage, stopping at St. Helena 
for a short time for water and sheep and vegetables. 
Our carpenter wanted to get a brick from Napoleon’s 
grave, and a negro boatman told him he would fetch him 
one for a dollar, which he gave to him. In about half an 
hour a brick was brought, probably the first one the negro 
found on shore, for it takes at least four hours to go to 
Longwood and of course the guard would not have let 
him have one from there. I told the carpenter he could 
get just as good a brick in New York that would answer 
the purpose as well, but the old fellow was satisfied and 
could tell his friends with a better conscience that it was 
a veritable brick from Napoleon’s last resting place. 

This voyage throughout had been a school for me in 
navigation and seamanship. The mate had done all he 
could to put me forward. As I was only a seaman in 
reality I worked with the men, and I was on good terms 
with them. They were all good sailors; and I could now 
turn in a dead-eye and clap on a seizing as well as most 


53 


of them, and besides, I was getting great confidence in 
myself in regard to taking care of the ship, as I kept the 
second mate’s watch for more than six weeks. 

From St. Helena we made good time up to Barnegat, 
where we took a pilot the last of March. It was Sunday 
morning and with a light breeze we were going up towards 
the Hook. Just after breakfast Mr. Battelle came on 
deck all dressed up in his best clothes, new silk hat and 
white kid gloves. The second mate said, “ Hallo! Where 
you going to?” Battelle said he was going to church if 
the ship got to New York in time. But he was slightly 
mistaken, for the pilot began to give orders to shorten 
sail, and the second mate told Mr. Battelle that if he saw 
New York in a week, he would be lucky, as a nor’wester 
was coming out. And sure enough we were soon under 
close-reefed topsails with a gale blowing right in our teeth. 
Poor Battelle cursed the second mate and wished he 
might meet with a nor’wester every time he came home; 
and then he went below and we did not see him again till 
we got to Sandy Hook three days afterwards. This was 
the second time I had been blown off to sea when it seemed 
that a few hours would have put us into port in safety. 

During the voyage this Battelle had played many tricks 
upon the simple-minded Mr. Dow, who had not said a 
word, but when we got off Staten Island, waiting for the 
Custom-house officer, (I was in the cabin with two men, 
getting out the trunks, and Captain Palmer was also there 
with all the passengers) Mr. Dow called to Mr. Battelle 
and told him he was a great scoundrel and that he must 
get down on his knees and beg his pardon for all the tricks 
he had played upon him, or else go ashore and fight with 
pistols. He said he had taken everything quietly during 
the voyage, so as not to have any trouble, but now he was 


54 


going to have satisfaction. Poor Battelle was frightened 
and got down on his knees and asked pardon; said he had 
meant nothing, but wanted a little fun. Mr. Battelle 
and Mr. Dow were two very large men. It was a great 
surprise to see Mr. Battelle show the white feather. He 
was supposed to be a great pugilist, but he fell in every 
one’s estimation and Captain Palmer would not have 
anything to say to him. Poor Mr. Dow had to go to an 
insane asylum and at the age of eighty-two was still there, 
some fifty years after he came home. We made the 
passage home in something under ninety days and beat 
the Montauk. 

I was now made second mate, with Mr. Hunt as chief 
mate and Captain Alexander Palmer as captain. Captain 
Nat stayed on shore to superintend the building of a new 
clipper to be called the Samuel Russell , and to be twice as 
large as the Houqua. We left New York about the middle 
of May for China, with a cargo of cotton goods and lum¬ 
ber, but no passengers. Nothing unusual occurred. I 
got along very well as second mate, but towards the end 
of the voyage the Captain got dissatisfied with Mr. Hunt. 
The trouble began in the Indian Ocean. When we left 
New York it looked as though the United States would 
have war with England. One day as we were running 
our easting down we saw a ship ahead at eight o’clock in 
the morning. It was a fine day and Mr. Hunt was going 
to give a salute at noontime. For some reason we had 
all our eight ports triced up, though we only had two nine 
pounders. These were run out the bow ports and loaded. 
A few minutes before twelve o’clock we were within a 
half mile of the stranger, who hoisted English colors. 
At twelve we hauled up our mainsail and fired one of the 
guns and ran up our colors. We were nearly alongside 


55 


of the Englishman who was hauling in his studding- 
sails and shortening sail as fast as he could, evidently 
thinking there was war between the two countries and 
intending to surrender. When the captain spoke him and 
told him we were the American ship Houqua from New 
York, bound to China, a merchant ship like himself, he 
was mad as a hornet and would have nothing to say 
to us, but gave orders to make sail again. We fired twelve 
guns, and Mr. Hunt, to show how smart we were, gave 
orders to haul aboard the main tack and aft sheet at the 
same time, and let go all the gear at once. This the 
Captain laid up against him as an attempt to lose the sail, 
although he ought to have known there was no danger, as 
the breeze was light and the men had the sail set in a very 
short time. But Captain Palmer tended to be suspicious 
and could not bear to see two or three men talking to¬ 
gether; he was apt to imagine they were talking against 
him. It was a great mistake, for he was a perfect gentle¬ 
man and a first-rate sailor, and the best of navigators. 
He was the only captain I sailed with, who took lunar 
observations and taught me how to work them up. 

Everything went on smoothly, however, till just before 
reaching Anjer. I wished to send a letter home from 
there and one morning when I had my watch below, I 
went into the cabin and asked the Captain to let me have 
two or three sheets of letter paper, as I had none. Of 
course I took off my hat when I went in, as in duty bound. 
The Captain said nothing to me at the time, but a few days 
after, Mr. Hunt called me and wanted to know what I 
had been doing. He said the Captain had been finding a 
great deal of fault, saying that I went into the cabin for 
writing paper and took off my hat, just as though I had 
no right to go in. I laughed at the idea and afterwards 


56 


I spoke to the Captain and told him what Mr. Hunt had 
said. I told him I had been brought up to show respect 
to my superiors, and should feel as though I were very 
impertinent to keep my hat on when going into the cabin. 
He made some comment on Mr. Hunt’s behavior, which 
I do not recall. Mr. Hunt was a jolly fellow and apt to 
make too free with such a man as Captain Alexander 
Palmer, though Captain Nat Palmer rather enjoyed his 
wit and stories. 

Well, things went on till we got to China and the cargo 
was all discharged. Then Mr. Hunt came to me and 
told me that he was going to leave the ship; that the Captain 
had said as much as that he had better leave, and he would 
not stay where he was not wanted. I told him if he left I 
would leave too, but he told me not to do it, but to stay 
by the ship, though not to go second mate under any mate 
who could be had in China. My brother Edward was in 
Russell & Co.’s, and he also told me not to leave the ship, 
so I stayed. A few days after, when the men were at 
dinner, the Captain called me below and asked me how I 
liked the change. I asked him what change ? and he said 
Mr. Hunt’s leaving. I informed him that I was very 
sorry; that Mr. Hunt was thought very much of at home 
and also that I should not go as second mate under any 
man picked up in China. He asked me if I felt competent 
to go as mate? I told him that matter was for him to 
judge. He wanted to know if I was well up in navigation, 
as mates had to be able to navigate the ship if anything 
happened to the Captain. I told him I was well able to 
find the position of the ship by observation, and thought 
I could take the ship to any port of the world. “If that 
is so,” he said, “I am confident that your seamanship is 
good enough; you are first mate from to-day; and 


57 


whom shall we get for second mate?” I told him I 
would make inquiries, and before the next day I found 
a first-rate man. Mr. Hunt ran foul of him and told me 
of him, and Captain Palmer engaged him. I have for¬ 
gotten his name, but he was A No. 1. Here I was after 
one voyage as third mate, and only about four months as 
second mate, promoted to a chief mate’s berth on one of 
the finest ships afloat; and I was only a little over twenty 
years of age. I was determined that I would keep the 
position, if hard work and a strict attention to my duties 
would do it. 

Shortly after this we took in a load of cotton goods and 
sailed for Shanghai. The navigation of the Yang-tse 
River to Woosung was very different, as the river had not 
been well surveyed as yet, the port of Shanghai having 
been opened to foreigners only a short time. We met with 
no trouble, and arrived safely and discharged our cargo, 
and took in a cargo of tea. As it was not packed in such 
packages as they sent from Canton, we were to go back 
to Whampoa and unload, and fill up with Canton-packed 
teas. We had quite a large number of passengers, most 
of them to go to Chusan, an island in the archipelago, 
some distance to the southeast of the mouth of the Yang- 
tse River. We dropped down the river to Woosung all 
right, but where the river intersects the Yang-tse there 
were a number of junks assembled. The Captain was on 
the quarter deck, while I was stationed on the forecastle. 
I had the quarter boat under the bows, to run lines if 
necessary to haul the ship one way or another. All at 
once I heard the cry of “The Captain is overboard!” 
I immediately ordered the boat to go to the stern, and the 
men made such good time that they reached the Captain 
before he sank the second time. He had been trying to 


58 


pry off a junk’s anchor stock which was foul of our davits, 
when the handspike slipped and let him fall overboard. 
He had a bad fall and was very considerably shaken up 
and was quite sick; there was a doctor on board who 
said he must remain in bed. He called me to him and 
told me I must take charge of the ship for the present and 
take her to Chusan. He gave me directions and showed 
me the chart and how I was to proceed, warning me to 
be very careful as the tides were very rapid and needed 
close watching. The pilot had charge of the ship just 
then and after clearing the junks we proceeded down 
the river. The tide turning about six p.m. we came to an 
anchor for the night, giving me a chance to study the 
situation, and I felt confident that I could navigate the 
ship safely. The captain gave me all the advice he could, 
and at six a.m. we got under way and proceeded on our 
course. 

I discharged the pilot and left the river. I soon found 
the current was running nearly eight miles an hour, partly 
in my favor, but I had to haul up some four points more 
to the eastward. I made the island in good time and 
came to anchor all right, much to the Captain’s delight 
and mine, too. We moored ship with forty-five fathoms 
on one anchor and thirty fathoms on the other. We lay 
there twenty-four hours, discharged our passengers and 
the Captain being better, started to get under weigh, but 
we had a job before us. The ship had been turning round 
and round and had wound the cables up as far as we could 
see. Generally in mooring to remain any time we have a 
mooring shackle, which turns round every time the ship 
does; and we have both chains shackled to it, and then 
cast off one chain and hold with a single cable attached to 
the upper part of the shackle. It was a long job and a hard 


59 


one, as we had to lash the two chains together and with a 
boat take in one chain and haul it round and round, 
taking the turns out, then shackle it again and heave in 
by the windlass till we got more of the chain above water, 
and then proceed as before. It took us most of the day 
to clear hawse, and it was nearly dark before we got under 
weigh for Hong Kong. We arrived at Hong Kong and 
then proceeded up the river to Whampoa, where we dis¬ 
charged the Shanghai tea to be repacked, Canton fashion. 

About a month later we took in our cargo for New York 
and I recall nothing to relate on the voyage home. I ap¬ 
peared to please the Captain, and we had no trouble with 
the men. Captain Palmer took pleasure in teaching me to 
work lunars, and he took them very often; he was well 
up in the higher branches of navigation and I learned 
very much from him. While I was with him he seemed 
very feeble and not long for this life, but he outlived both 
of his brothers and reached the advanced age of ninety- 
two years. After arriving in New York he left the ship, 
and Captain Nat Palmer took command. Of course I 
was a little uncertain whether I should be retained as 
chief mate, but Captain Nat soon assured me that I was 
to go with him in that capacity. 

I had been at home but four weeks when, the ship being 
loaded, we left again for China, Captain Palmer taking 
his wife and a niece of his, Miss Fanning. She was a 
very pleasant girl and I was very glad to have her com¬ 
pany in the first watch, from eight to ten p.m., a pleasure 
which she often gave me in fine weather. 

Nothing unusual happened; everything went off very 
well. Captain Palmer evidently intended that I should be 
master of the ship as soon as possible, for he made me take 
observations of the sun for longitude by the chronometer, 


60 


and mark out the ship’s position on the chart, and give 
the course the ship should be sailed, and sometimes he 
would take no observation himself but work out mine. 
Now the captain is the one who puts the ship about, but 
very often when it had to be done Captain Nat would say, 
“Mr. Low, put the ship about,” and then he would go 
below till it was done. In fact he left me sole master of 
the deck and I had to rtiake sail or take it in without call¬ 
ing him. He was very passionate. In calm weather he 
would come on deck, with an old white beaver hat on, 
take it off and stamp on it and “damn” the calm and 
everything else, but he never abused the men. 

When running down our easting one day we were under 
close-reefed topsails and foresail, and the ship was rolling 
fearfully. About seven p.m. I had the watch and the Cap¬ 
tain put his head out of the cabin scuttle and asked me how 
the weather was. I told him it was more moderate just 
then, but I thought it would blow again at eight o’clock. 
He then said, “ Mr. Low, shake the reefs out of the main 
topsail; set the main-topgallant sail and main-royal and 
let her roll over ship shape and Bristol fashion, with all her 
canvass on her!” and then darted below. At eight p.m., 
as I expected, it began to blow hard again and the Captain 
put his head out of the scuttle and called out, “ Mr. Low, 
take in the main-royal, the main-topgallant sail and 
close reef the main-topsail, and let her roll over and be 
damned to her!” And down he went again. It was very 
wet and very cold on deck and he preferred the cabin, 
but if it was necessary he could stand any fatigue and 
exposure, and I was quite sure his object in retiring was to 
teach me confidence in myself, and also to give me ex¬ 
perience. In fact, as far as carrying on the work of the 
ship and sailing her was concerned, I was the Captain. 


61 


We had a very pleasant voyage and a good one, stopping 
at Anjer and going up the China Sea to Hong Kong and 
then to Whampoa to load for New York. We had to 
wait some two or three months before securing a cargo, 
and Captain Palmer had one of the quarter boats fitted 
with sails and would spend a good deal of his time sailing 
around with his wife and Miss Fanning, but sometimes 
he would go to Canton for a week and leave me to take 
his wife and niece out for a sail, which I enjoyed very 
much. As I was chief mate I had no work to attend to 
after the cargo was out. I gave my orders to the second 
mate and he carried on the work, and as I always took 
my meals with the Captain, no matter how much company 
he had, I was always dressed neatly and was as much of a 
gentleman as the Captain. My brother Edward was a 
partner in the house of Russell & Co., and Saturday after¬ 
noons he would come down to the ship and stay over 
Sunday, sometimes bringing two or three or more young 
men with him, and we would have a good time together; 
in fact there was hardly a day without company. 

We at last began to take in teas, and my time had come 
to go to work, as I had to take account of all the chests 
that came on board, and it required a sharp lookout to 
see that the Chinese boatmen did not cheat. Every chest 
that came through the port had a tally stick about a foot 
long stuck in the rattans; this was taken out by the 
man near the port, and when he had received ten of them 
he would sing out “Tally!” and I would mark it down. 
The Chinese boatmen would try and stick two bamboos 
in one chest, but with a smart young man to look out 
there was not much danger, though he had to keep his 
eyes open. 

After the ship was loaded the Captain went to Canton 


62 


to sign the bills of lading, and while he was gone the running 
rigging was rove, sails bent and the ship got ready for 
sea; and as soon as the Captain came back we were ready 
to unmoor and sail for home. 

As on the voyage out so it was going home. The Cap¬ 
tain left the working of the ship to me; and I also had 
opportunities to work the sights for longitude by chrono¬ 
meter; in fact I was well able to take command, though 
I was not to be Captain just yet, nor did I expect to be. 

We arrived in New York late in March, had quite a 
blow off the coast, and came near losing some of our sails. 
Captain Nat had a great way of taking command of a 
ship when she was new and everything was in good shape, 
and so he sailed her at little expense. Then he would 
turn her over to some other Captain who would be obliged 
to buy a lot of running rigging and new sails and thus 
run up a number of big bills. It was now the Houqua’s 
third voyage and hardly anything had been replaced since 
the first one; the ropes were giving out and as I said, 
we came near losing our sails from the ropes’ parting. 
The Captain said nothing, but when we were preparing 
for another voyage and Captain Nat told me that his 
brother Theodore would take charge, I resolved to tell 
him how the rigging was worn out and I did. He said 
he knew his brother well, and that he would have every¬ 
thing good if he was going to take command. I gave 
him a list of the new ropes wanted and he bought them. 
The day the riggers were bending sails, most of the new 
rope that was being rove was on the mainsail and topsail 
right in the gangway, and it made a big show. Captain 
Theodore was standing near when Captain Nat put in an 
appearance, and as soon as he saw the new rope he began 
to swear and said they would have to sell the ship to pay 


63 


expenses, and he ordered the ropes to be unrove and the 
old ones put in their places. But I stepped in and told 
Captain Nat that he knew that the ropes were not fit to 
haul the sails up with, and that we came near losing the 
mainsail and main-topsail just before coming in. He 
calmed down and told his brother to change them as 
soon as he got into fine weather; but his brother had an 
ugly temper and they had a fight about expenses almost 
every day till he went to sea. 

Captain Theodore Palmer was much younger than his 
brothers and was a harder man to get along with. He 
had been in the Liverpool packets most of his life and 
had had hard men to deal with and he looked upon 
sailors as mere brutes, to be dealt with as such. But we 
had a good crew, as most “ Indiamen ” had in those days 
and he realized that they were superior and better than 
the “ hoosiers ” he had been used to, and improved in his 
treatment very much. 

I got along with him very well and he seemed very 
much pleased with my work as chief mate. When he 
first saw me he supposed I knew little or nothing, but 
that I had been advanced by favor of his brother, and 
that he would have to be master and mate too. But he 
soon found out that I wanted no favors, and would take 
no advantage of my relationship to the owners. This 
pleased him very much and he became quite sociable with 
me, and asked me many questions about the trade winds 
and weather during the trip, for he had never been south 
of the line, and I helped him very much in making a short 
passage. There was nothing of interest in the voyage out. 
We made a good passage and after the usual waiting for a 
cargo filled up and sailed for home. 

We had four or five passengers. One was Captain 


64 


Harding, an old opium skipper. He was a splendid speci¬ 
men of a man, over six feet in height and stout in propor¬ 
tion. I think he weighed some two hundred and eighty 
pounds or more. He had a magnificent Newfoundland 
dog which would do almost anything his master told him 
to do. Then we had a missionary, the Rev. Mr. Doty, 
who was going home after having buried his third wife in 
Amoy. He had in charge a lovely boy of four or five 
years, George Pohlman, an orphan placed with Mr. 
Doty to bring up. He did not intend to spare the rod in 
doing it, for almost every night he gave the boy a thrashing, 
sometimes for what he had done, and sometimes for what 
he might do the next day, till one evening I went into the 
cabin and told the reverend gentleman that he must stop 
whipping that boy or I would thrash him every time I 
caught him at it. The voyage home was the same as 
most voyages, fine pleasant sailing most of the way. 
We put into St. Helena and the Captain and passengers 
went on shore and stayed all night. There were two or 
three whalers in port, and the mates came on board and 
stayed till after midnight spinning yarns. I came near 
being caught napping, for no one waked me up before six 
o’clock, when we should have been ready for getting 
under weigh. Fortunately the Captain slept late on 
shore and did not get off till eight a.m., when I had all sail 
set and was ready to heave up the anchor as soon as he 
made his appearance. 

From St. Helena we had the usual pleasant weather 
till we were in latitude 25° north where we lost the north¬ 
east trades and were in the outside of a West Indian hurri¬ 
cane. The weather was very threatening and at eight p.m. 
we had reduced sail to three close-reefed topsails, sent 
down skysail and royal yards and made all ready, but 


65 


there was no wind. At ten p.m. there was a terrific thunder- 
and-lightning storm. I never saw the like of it before or 
since. It was so dark that I could not see the Captain 
who was close alongside of me. It began with a fierce 
flash of lightning right overhead, followed by a deafening 
thunder-clap on the port quarter; then a forked streak 
of lightning on the starboard quarter with another peal of 
thunder, and for two hours it continued without inter¬ 
mission, with torrents of rain but no wind. It was 
fearful, but after midnight it worked away to the west¬ 
ward, and in the morning the northeast trades came back 
and from that time on we made a good run to New York, 
reaching home about the middle of September. 

As mate I had to stay by the ship till the cargo was all 
discharged, which took about fifteen days. My brother 
then told me that Captain Nat Palmer had advised my 
being put in command of the ship. Being just twenty- 
three years old I hesitated at accepting the offer, but 
Captain Palmer told me I was just as capable of being 
Master as I should be two years hence, and I accepted. 
I felt very proud of the position. I chose for my chief 
mate Mr. Stevens, a very capable man, a good sailor and 
navigator. He was an Englishman but had sailed from 
New York for a long time. I liked him very much. The 
steward was named Essex after the man of war of that 
name. He had been steward of the Great Western , the 
first steamer that crossed the Atlantic. He was lame in 
one arm but he was the best steward out of New York 
and had been in the Houqua for two voyages, and was 
ready to go with me in my first voyage as Master. 

I had more time to myself now than I had had since 
I first went to sea and I enjoyed my stay on shore. I 
visited around in the family, dining out pretty much every 


66 


day. I was longing to get to sea again, and yet somewhat 
anxious, as the time arrived, to assume the whole re¬ 
sponsibility of Master. 

The time flew rapidly, and on the 4th of November 
we were towed down the bay. All my brothers and 
sisters, Captains Nat and Theodore Palmer and a large 
number of friends were on the tug-boat to give me a send off, 
and just five years from my first voyage as boy I was off 
as Captain of this beautiful little ship. I had a splendid 
crew, and my second mate, Mr. Higgins, seemed very 
smart and active. My chief mate I had great confidence 
in, and as for myself, now I was afloat, I was perfectly 
confident that I should be fully able to give satisfaction 
to my employers. 

The first three days we had light winds and pleasant 
weather. On the fourth day out the wind was fresh and 
stormy, but I left the deck with the mate about eleven 
o’clock. Soon after he came and called me and said it 
was blowing hard and that he wanted me on deck. I 
have never forgotten my feelings at that time. I had 
always had some one to call upon at such a time, and now 
I was the one called and the one to act. I was not long 
in answering his call and as soon as I got on deck I found 
it was necessary to shorten sail, and I told the mate to call 
all hands and reef the topsails. I put two reefs in and 
sent the men below. It was now my watch on deck and 
I carried the double-reefed topsails till daylight, when the 
gale increased and I had to close-reef, and for two days 
we had very heavy gales with furious squalls. We made 
good headway but did not get the northeast trades till 
we reached latitude 21° north. We carried them to 
5° north and then took the southeast trades with only 
one day’s calm, crossing the line after the very short 


67 


passage of twenty-three days from New York. The trades 
were light and we had pleasant weather. Seven days 
after crossing the line we made the Island of Trinidad at 
four o’clock in the afternoon. This was a great satis¬ 
faction and gave me great relief. It not only showed 
me that my chronometers were going well but that my 
observations were correct and that there was no trouble 
about my navigation. With variable winds we passed 
the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope in latitude 4° 
south and for a week we had furious gales; but nothing 
worthy of notice took place till the fifteenth day of January. 

The ship was running before the wind; it was a beau¬ 
tiful night with full moon and not a cloud to be seen. 
I had been talking to the second mate and telling him I 
thought we had made the quickest passage on record 
thus far. We had every sail set, stunsails on both sides 
and all sail we could pack on the ship. At ten p.m. I 
went below, and before turning in I looked at the barom¬ 
eter and it stood at 29.80, the same as for some days. At 
two I was waked out of a sound sleep by a terrible dream. 
I dreamed the ship was going down head first, with a big 
sea rolling over her bows. I jumped from my berth in a 
reeking perspiration and went on deck, which was my 
custom when I woke up at any time of night. Before 
going up I looked at the barometer and it was the same 
as when I turned in. I found the mate in charge and 
asked him how the weather was, and he replied that it 
was about the same as when he relieved the deck at twelve 
o’clock. Feeling chilly I went below and I seemed to 
be led by an invisible something to look at the barometer. 
It had fallen two tenths! I had forgotten my dream, but 
I could not make out how there should be such a fall. I 
examined it to see if there was anything wrong about it 


68 


and came to the conclusion that I had not set it right. I 
put on my monkey jacket and went on deck again and 
found the wind increasing somewhat, and ordered all the 
port-studding-sails taken in and the jibs and spanker to 
be furled, and then went down again to look at the ba¬ 
rometer and found it had fallen two tenths more. I then 
knew there was trouble brewing and jumped on deck, 
ordering all hands called to shorten sail and handed the 
royals and topgallant sails. The wind increasing as fast 
as we could clew up, haul down and furl, we close-reefed 
the topsails and furled the mainsail. At three a.m., 
barometer 28.90 and blowing heavy, we took in the fore 
and mizzen-topsail and furled them, and reefed the foresail 
and set it. At four a.m. we were scudding under a close- 
reefed main-topsail and reefed-foresail, wind blowing a 
furious gale. The sky was covered with dense masses of 
black, smoky clouds filled with thunder and lightning, 
and all the mast-heads and yard-arms had composants, 
or balls of electricity, resting upon them, as low down as 
the lower yards. 

The stunsail booms were rigged in and made fast to 
the quarter of the yards. The ship at five a.m. was scud¬ 
ding at a fearful rate, and rolling. She first rolled the star¬ 
board topmast-stunsail booms under, on both the fore and 
main-yards, snapping them short off; she then rolled to 
port and snapped the port-booms off. The next roll she 
made took the starboard quarter boat from the davits. At 
six a.m. the wind suddenly shifted to south from south¬ 
west, blowing a hurricane and broaching the ship to, and 
heaving her down with her port leading trucks in the water. 
We hauled the foresail up and braced the main-yard up with 
the port braces. The foresail and main-topsail blew to 
pieces, and one by one every sail was blown from the gas- 



THE HOUQUA 

The ship was scudding at a fearful rate 





























































69 


kets and reefs. The jib and flying-jib guys set up to the 
cat-head and the strain on the guys was so great as to 
snap the cat-head short off, and the jib-boom went over¬ 
board, breaking off at the bowsprit cap. The fore-and- 
main-topgallant masts soon followed, carrying with them 
the topmast-head. The mizzen-topgallant-mast bent 
nearly double and broke off just above the cap. The 
port quarter boat was lashed on deck having just been 
repaired. This was knocked to pieces and went over¬ 
board. All the ports, eight in number on the port side, 
were carried away and the monkey rail stove in fore and 
aft. It was impossible to hear yourself speak. My 
mate was within three feet of me, and with a speaking 
trumpet it was difficult to make him hear. It blew so 
hard we had to lie flat and hold on. At nine a.m. the wind 
lulled and the ship righted and fell off before the wind. 
Every sail had been blown from the gaskets and reefs, 
and there was not a square foot of canvas left upon the 
yards. The spanker was reefed and furled to the boom 
and it blew to pieces from there. The barometer now 
stood at 27.50. While the lull lasted we managed to clear 
away the wreck of the fore and main-topgallant-masts 
with the yards and rigging attached, and let them go over¬ 
board. At noon there was a furious gale from southeast. 
Shortly after noon the hurricane came on again with terrific 
violence and it was impossible to stand against it. At 
two p.m., as it was still increasing in violence, fearing to 
scud any longer we hove the ship to under bare poles, on 
the port tack, with her head to the south. The rails and 
ports were all whole on the starboard side and the wind 
was hauling against the sun, or from southwest to south 
and southeast to east. When we hove to, the lower masts 
and topmasts with their yards were all right, with the 


70 


wreck of the main-topgallant mast hanging to windward. 
At four p.m. the mates and sailors were lashed under the 
main rigging and I was standing just abaft holding on to 
the pin rail, when to windward I could see the spoondrift, 
a solid mass twenty or thirty feet high, coming down before 
the hurricane; and the most fearful gusts of wind hurled 
themselves upon us. It is impossible to describe the 
roaring, howling and shrieking of the wind. Never did 
I or could I imagine it. The stoutest and firmest man in 
the ship could not stand before any one of the ports, the 
spoondrift being driven through them with the force of 
a shot from a cannon. It struck the outside of the ship 
and formed an arch over her so that while we could see 
fore and aft, we could not see above the tops, and the air 
was so full of salt water we could hardly breathe. The 
ship stood against it for about ten minutes, when she was 
hove down on her beam ends. I tried to gain the weather 
rail and I caught it with my right hand, but the rail being 
wet and slippery, and the ship going over so quickly, my 
feet slipped from under me and I fell into the sea to lee¬ 
ward, without touching the ship. I rose to see the mizzen 
rigging just before me, but a big sea came over me and I 
went down where it was dark. I never expected to see 
the ship again. I said my last prayer, as I thought. 
Everything that I had done from my youth up came to 
my mind and I wondered how long my relatives would 
look for me and never hear from me; but my eyes were 
open and I saw a line before me and caught it and hauled 
myself up till my head struck the pin rail around the 
mizzen-mast, before my feet struck the deck. I im¬ 
mediately got on the weather side of it and motioned to 
the mate and men to cut the rigging of the mainmast. 
As they cut the lanyards the mainmast went, breaking off 


71 


about four feet above the deck. With the assistance of 
a man at the wheel I got to windward and cut the lanyards 
of the mizzen rigging, the mast going over about a foot 
above the deck, and the ship righted with her rail above 
the water. Before the masts were cut away, the rims of 
the tops were in the water and the deck perpendicular, 
and the ship was drawing as much water on her side as 
she did on her keel. If we had been two minutes later in 
cutting away the masts she would inevitably have foundered. 
The carpenter’s house with all his tools and clothes, the 
galley with the caboose or cooking stove, with all the cook¬ 
ing utensils in the ship, went overboard without leaving a 
trace upon the rail. The fore-scuttle was carried away 
and the water poured down in a solid stream, carrying the 
bulkhead between-decks into the lower hold, with all the 
sailors’ bunks, chests and bedding. The house over the 
long boat, with all the purchase and spare blocks and 
spare lines and all the live stock, pigs and fowls went 
overboard. The ship was so far over that the capstan 
unshipped and stuck in one of the ports to leeward, 
and that was about the only thing that was left on deck. 

The cabin was half filled with water and my chro¬ 
nometers also were full of water and one of them stopped. 
My watch and sextant were also ruined; also my books 
and charts were soaked, and all table linen and my clothes 
were wet through. There was nothing belonging to me 
that was not drenched except six volumes of “ Channing’s 
Sermons” which I had not opened, and which were in a 
berth on the other side of the ship; they were dry. 

When the main and mizzen-masts were cut away the 
lee rigging held them and they turned up under the 
weather quarter and were beating with great force against 
the ship, threatening to beat a hole in it. It was a great 


72 


relief when the rigging gave way and they drifted away 
from us. Until they left us we did nothing. The sound¬ 
ing rod was gone, so I ordered the mate to take two of 
the best men and go down forward and see how much 
water there was in the ship. They reported her half full. 
I immediately ordered both pumps rigged, and we went 
to work. In the meantime I had a small sail rigged up 
to the boat davits, and it blew so hard that this brought 
the ship to the wind and she lay very comfortably. I now 
went below for the first time since noon. I found the 
steward wiping off the paint work and he told me that 
he had gone into his room as he could do nothing on deck 
and did not want to be eaten up by sharks, for he supposed 
the ship would founder. I found in my room, which was 
just abaft the pantry and store room, a lot of stores which 
had washed from the store room, Indian meal, soap, and 
a quantity of other things. The Manila cabin boy had 
tried to get out of the skylight, and had cut his arms badly 
with breaking the glass; and two or three of my men had 
to be attended to who had received cuts and bruises, 
so I had my hands full for an hour or more. All hands 
kept the pumps going, and as fast as they were relieved 
they lay down on deck and went to sleep with the water 
washing over them, that came in through the open ports. 
About eleven p.m. the men came to me and wanted to know 
where the second mate was, saying they wanted him to 
take his share of the pumping. I went to his room and 
found him on his knees, praying. I told him to “ Hustle 
out of that quick and go to the pumps! for God helped 
those who helped themselves.” He was a badly scared 
man and wanted to know if the ship was going to the 
bottom. I told him we should know better when we got 
the water out of her. It was an awful night; the fore 


73 


yard, the lifts and the braces were gone, and the fore 
yard was cock-billed; the lower yard-arm striking the 
bulwarks and knocking a big hole in them. The fore 
topsail-yard hung by the tie, as it had lost the parrel, and 
when the ship rolled it went the full length of the tie to 
leeward and then came back with the force of a battering 
ram, carrying away the fore-topsail rigging and bruising 
the foremast-head badly. It was impossible to attend 
to all of these while we had, as we supposed, a sinking 
ship under us, and besides, it was blowing so that no one 
could put his head above the rail. The men had been 
on deck from two a.m. Saturday morning until Sunday 
morning at seven, with only a glass of cider occasionally 
and a biscuit. We had no water, for it had all washed 
from the deck and there was no going below. 

After the pumps sucked, at seven a.m. on Sunday, and 
we found we had a tight ship under us, I sent all hands 
to get two or three hours’ sleep. 

On Monday, January seventeenth, we had fine weather 
and I sent fore-yard and fore-topsail yard on deck to be 
refitted, which was a tedious job, for all the tools we had 
left were a hatchet and a gouge found among the sailors’ 
dunnage. As we had no cooking-stove and no water, 
while the carpenter was fitting the fore-yard the rest of the 
men broke out the fore hold and procured salt beef and 
pork and casks of bread, and a cask of coal which we 
hoisted on deck. The coal cask we cut in two and turned 
one half on its end and then covered it with a foot of sand. 
We rigged a tripod on top and with some tins from the 
cabin we made out to boil salt pork and beef and give the 
men a good mess. 

Tuesday, the eighteenth, we sent the fore-yard and fore¬ 
topsail-yard aloft. On opening the after hatch we found 


74 


it so hot that we were threatened with spontaneous com¬ 
bustion, and we had to open all the hatches and take out 
many bales of cotton goods and put windsails down the 
hatches. Afterwards we sent the foresail up and set it, 
also the fore-topsail. 

Wednesday was very pleasant and we got ready and 
shipped a main-topmast for a jury mizzen-mast, on which 
we set a spanker and a cross-jack made of a reefed mizzen- 
topsail. We also sent up a short fore-topgallant-mast 
and a topgallant-mast for a jib-boom. The weather 
continued fine and on the twentieth we came up with the 
brig Lady Margaret from Manila, bound to Australia. 
Captain Mills kindly supplied me with tools and cooking 
utensils. On the twenty-fourth we made Sandalwood 
Island and for four or five days had heavy squalls and 
rain. In the Ombay Passage we were spoken by the 
Cygnet , Captain Dearborn, and the Lebanon , Captain 
Drew, who both offered assistance, but I wanted none. 
We kept company with them for two or three days through 
heavy squalls. 

On the fourth of February we came up with the ship Lady 
Amherst. We were beating up the south coast of Bouro 
and we had a most exciting day of it. The English ship 
had all her canvas and I was under jury rig, but at six p.m., 
if the breeze had held, I should have passed to windward 
of her; but the wind gave out and we parted. We worked 
hard all night and at six a.m. we were ten miles ahead of 
her, but we lay becalmed while she was coming up with 
a good breeze. She got within a mile of us and then she 
was becalmed. The Captain sent a boat on board of the 
Houqua and said he could let me have a spar to make a 
jury mast, and I went on board his ship to see what he 
had. The Captain was enthusiastic over my ship’s sail 


75 


the day before. After a while I bought the spar and 
some blocks and ropes, supposing he would let me have 
them on reasonable terms, but he charged me five hundred 
per cent, more than I could have got them for in Hong 
Kong. I was going to back out of the purchase, but he 
told me that if I refused assistance and anything happened 
to me I should lose the insurance. I took them and paid 
for them by a draft on Russell & Co. in Hong Kong, 
under protest at his extortion. It was noon when we 
settled, and as a breeze might spring up at any minute, I 
requested him to put the spar in the water and the other 
articles in his boat and help me get them on board my 
ship; but he declined to ask his men to do it, as they were 
just going to dinner and had worked hard all night. I 
asked permission to speak to his crew and he gave it. I 
went forward and told them my ship was in distress and 
it was very important for me to have those things aboard 
at once, and asked them to do it at once. They jumped 
to their feet and in a short time had the spar overboard 
and their boat loaded with the blocks and ropes, and then 
towed the spar alongside my ship and helped get it on 
board. They worked with a will, and by one o’clock 
they were back to their ship again. 

With light breezes and calms for two days we kept com¬ 
pany with the Lady Amherst. On the sixth of February 
I kept off for Cajeli, island of Bouro, for water, anchored 
in Cajeli Bay at seven a.m. on the seventh of February. 
Bouro is under the Dutch Government, and it had a 
Malay Governor and under-officers there. The Governor 
could speak English and was very intelligent. He gave me 
a cordial greeting and wanted to know what he could do 
for us. We took a walk in the forest and I bought quite 
a number of trees for a mere song. I thought they would 


76 


make good studding-sail booms, and that one large one 
would make me a good mizzen-mast. While my men 
were loading water I had my carpenter come on shore to 
cut down the trees, which cut as soft as pine wood; but 
when we came to haul them down to the beach they were 
so heavy that we might as well have tried to move the 
island, so we cut most of them up for fire wood. Then 
we went to work to get our jury mainmast up, and we were 
enabled to set a foresail on it. Bouro is one of the Spice 
Islands and the Dutch send their ships there for coffee 
and spices of all kinds, which the natives collect for the 
Dutch Government. They also furnish the famous Cage- 
put oil, called by the natives “Caiai pooty” oil. The 
Governor wanted to sell me a lot of it, but not knowing 
enough about its value I bought only fifty bottles at one 
dollar a bottle. When I got to Hong Kong I sold it at 
seven dollars a bottle. It was perfectly pure oil, and I 
was told that one seldom saw such oil. While in port my 
steward gave the Governor a lot of garden seed; and some 
months afterward, when my brother Edward was a 
passenger in the Valparaiso , bound to China, and they 
put into this bay for water, they were supplied with vege¬ 
tables raised from this seed. We had a very pleasant 
time, and filled up with water and wood and vegetables 
and fruit, and after a week’s stay we left on the fifteenth 
of February. 

When we passed through Dampier Straits north of 
New Guinea, a great number of natives came alongside, 
and as we were perfectly defenceless, I bought up all 
their bows and arrows. We were becalmed, and before 
long we sighted war canoes coming after us, some with 
fifty stark naked, six-foot natives on board; but fortunately 
for us a smart squall came up and we ran away from them. 


77 


I thought at one time it was all up with us, for we could 
have done nothing against two or three hundred savages. 

After getting into the Pacific we had light winds, but 
we had no further incidents worthy of mention. On the 
eleventh of March we made the Bashee Islands, south of 
Formosa, and with fresh breezes ran across the China 
Sea and came to anchor in Hong Kong on the fourteenth 
of March, having made the passage from New York in 
one hundred and thirty-one days, sixty days under jury 
masts. 

On arrival I found Mr. Wolcott, agent from A. A. Low 
& Bros., who took a great interest in the ship and gave 
me much help. I abandoned the cargo to the under¬ 
writers and acted as their agent. The bulk of it was 
cotton goods and these were all badly damaged; some 
of the bales in the lower hold had their outside wrappers 
fairly burned off by the heat; and if they had been stowed 
with grease, spontaneous combustion would have taken 
place and the ship burned up. We had the whole cargo 
landed, and then we sent to Canton and the surrounding 
country advertisements in Chinese, for an auction to be 
held in Hong Kong of damaged goods, on such a date. 
The Chinamen gathered in crowds and bid against one 
another and the whole cargo was sold for cash for more 
than it w r ould have brought in Shanghai if delivered there 
in good order. 

After disposing of the cargo I had a survey and estimate 
of the cost of repairing made, and was recommended to 
put the ship in as good order as possible. At Jardine’s 
Point, to the east of the city, there was a good ship-yard 
carried on by a Boston man named Fraser, and I had the 
ship towed there and moored close in shore. There were 
but one rigger and one sailmaker in the place, so that 


78 


my crew would have to do pretty much all the fitting 
rigging and sail making. I called them aft one morning 
and told them what was to be done, and also told them 
that I would give them grog three times a day, and after 
the day’s work was over they could have liberty to go on 
shore, but that they must not bring any liquor on board 
or come on board drunk. They agreed to all and 
though we were there over three months I never lost one 
man, nor did I have a drunken man on board among the 
crew. The second mate, whom I found at his prayers 
when he should have been at the pumps, I had to dis¬ 
charge for incompetency and drunkenness. 

My sailors fitted all the rigging and made most of the 
sails, and rigged the ship all by themselves with the ex¬ 
ception of getting in the lower masts, when I hired 
Chinamen to help. We had to heave the ship out to look 
at her bottoms, and then we found that we had had a 
very narrow escape indeed, for when the mainmast had 
turned under the ship and come out on the weather quarter, 
it had pounded against the bottom and had come very 
near to knocking a hole in two or three planks. In one 
barely an inch of good wood was left. Besides doing all 
the work required by me, the sailors helped to heave down 
quite a number of small vessels that had to be repaired, 
and they made quite a lot of money which I gave them 
liberty to take. They were a splendid lot of sailors. I 
had some difficulty in getting suitable rigging and my 
quarter boats were not at all like the ones I lost, but I 
had to do the best I could. 

In the first week of June we were all staunch and ready 
for sea. We took in a load of cotton goods for Shanghai 
and left Hong Kong on the twenty-fourth of June with a 
light breeze from southwest. On the second of July we 


79 


came to anchor at eight p.m. in four and a half fathoms of 
water, and lav all night with fresh breeze and heavy rain. 
At six a.m. grounded on the south bank of the Yang-tse 
River and had to bury the chain and slip it, and make 
sail up the river. At six p.m. came to anchor. July 
fourth at six a.m. got under weigh and proceeded up the 
river, and at ten a.m. came to anchor off Woosung. July 
fifth Captain Roundy of the opium ship Ann Welsh came 
on board and piloted the ship to Shanghai, where we dis¬ 
charged our cargo and took in a load of tea. On the 
sixteenth of July we were all ready for sea, when a heavy 
typhoon set in and we had to send down topgallant-royal- 
and skysail-yards and topgallant-masts. The ships all 
dragged their anchors and fouled each other. The 
Houqua dragged into the English ship Queen and both 
ships were slightly damaged. The wind very fortunately 
shifted, or every ship in port would have gone on to the 
Bund. Russell & Co.’s godowns were blown down and 
there were three to four feet of water all over Shanghai. 

On the twentieth of July we dropped down the river 
and anchored outside of Woosung. On the twenty-second 
we were clear of the Yang-tse and with strong gales from 
the southwest beat down the Formosa Channel. August 
third we passed the Lema Islands and anchored inside 
of Green Island; August sixth got under weigh and pro¬ 
ceeded to Whampoa, where we discharged our teas to be 
repacked, but we were not to take them home and I had 
to make another trip to Shanghai. However, since we 
had been making money I was very well satisfied; it did 
not matter to me where I was sailing as long I was doing 
well for the ship and owners, but I was tired of hurri¬ 
canes. On the thirty-first of August I was again ready 
for sea when we had a fearful typhoon and I had to send 


80 


down my topgallant-masts with all the yards and let go 
a third anchor. The two bower anchors had ninety 
fathoms of cable on each. We rode out the typhoon in 
safety, but it was reported that fifty thousand Chinamen 
were drowned around Canton. The Isabella Robinson , 
a large English opium ship, was sunk at Capsingmoon 
and twelve or fifteen vessels were sunk or driven ashore 
at Hong Kong. This was my third experience of hurri¬ 
canes inside of a year and I wanted no more, though 
as it would be the typhoon season for two months yet, I 
knew I might be favored with more. It was three days 
before we were all ataunto. On September third we got 
under weigh and dropped down the river; passed the 
Bogue forts at two p.m; at six p.m. came to anchor. At six 
p.m. of the fourth got under weigh and proceeded to sea 
with light southwest winds. On the seventh we had a 
very heavy gale from northeast with barometer sinking 
and a heavy sea on. Close-reefed the topsails and reefed 
the foresail and as the gale was increasing, kept away 
for Chinchew harbor; ran in under reefed foresail and 
came to anchor in six fathoms of water, having run 
from a heavy gale into almost calm weather. We lay as 
comfortably as possible in this harbor, though by going to 
the tops we could look out and see the ocean one sheet of 
foam. We had to lie at anchor three days before the 
gale abated, and then we had pleasant weather; and we 
reached Shanghai on the fifteenth of September, where we 
lay till the nineteenth of November, waiting for the teas to 
come in. Here I received a letter from my father, the first 
I had had from any one of my family since my experience 
in the hurricane, and it gave me great comfort to know 
that I had met with favor in regard to my care of my ship. 


81 


“New York, July 4, 1848. 

“ My dear Son :—You will perceive by the date of this 
letter that I can have but little expectation of its reaching 
you at Canton or thereabouts. Nevertheless, I feel bound 
to embrace the earliest opportunity presented to congratu¬ 
late you on your most miraculous escape from death in 
January last. I cannot but regard the circumstances of 
your delivery as the arrangement of guardian angels to 
preserve you from death. You can hardly realize how 
your description of the scene has impressed all hearts, 
and I trust the impression made upon your own mind 
will never be erased, and that it will lead you to a deep 
and abiding conviction that you are, as well as all the 
human race, the perpetual objects of God’s care, and the 
constant recipients of his mercies. The circumstance of 
your escaping from a watery grave is very striking, but 
as I view the Providence of God, the fact that you were 
inspired with a presence of mind, courage, resolution, for¬ 
titude, prudence, as well as blest with health and strength 
to endure and meet the emergency of the occasion, 
were equally the gift of God, and should be cherished by 
you as continual causes of thanksgiving to Him. I cannot 
but remark too, how much you were blest with a willing 
and able crew, and how fortunate for them that none were 
lost at the time you went overboard, and that your mate 
was so ready to adopt the measure which was so abso¬ 
lutely necessary to prevent your ship from going to the 

bottom. Such no doubt has been the fate of many 

vessels overtaken by the fury of the same elements and 
not a trace has been left to account for their loss. We 
give God thanks for your preservation and pray without 
ceasing that his parental care may continue to guide, 

protect and preserve you and return you to us in his 

own good time. 

“The report of your disaster came from Hong Kong 
from the ship Cygnet , a month or more before we heard 
of your arrival. The intermediate time was a season of 
great anxiety with all of us, but your Mother happily was 


82 


not aware of the many dangers to which you might be 
exposed before you could reach Hong Kong. The navi¬ 
gation, I was aware, was at all times critical, and as 
you were in a crippled condition, I was much concerned 
lest you should be met by lawless depredators of the sea 
and be unable to employ any of the usual means of escape; 
but the hour arrived when our hearts were made glad 
with the news of your arrival. Your letters were read 
with great greediness. Josiah will write you, and as he 
holds a ready pen you will receive from him a full and 
minute account of the sensation which your graphic de¬ 
scription of the disaster has made upon our community. 
Your letters have been going the rounds and have been 
read with great interest not only by our own family, but 
by many out of the family, and we find, greatly to our 
joy and satisfaction, that there is but one opinion of your 
conduct, and that is highly honorable to you as a seaman, 
a man of courage and judgment and resolution. Your 
misfortune, as it appeared to you for the moment, re¬ 
dounds greatly to your credit, and will secure to you a 
high degree of consideration wherever the circumstances 
are known and justly appreciated. Our best seamen all 
acknowledge that the hurricane was most awful, and that 
you did everything a man could do. Mr. Hale of the 
Atlantic expressed himself in terms of great satisfaction 
and admiration of your conduct and said that your reso¬ 
lution to carry the ship to Hong Kong was deserving 
of great praise, and had saved a great deal of money for 
the office. Capt. Hudson of the Navy read the account 
which I send you from the Journal of Commerce, with 
great interest. He said he had read it twice and that 
his wife wept like a child while he read it. No doubt 
she recalled to mind the dangers to which he had been 
exposed in the Peacock. In fact, those best qualified to 
judge of your proceedings have been the most ready to 
approve. Much more of the same sort I could detail, 
but it is sufficient to say that you will never want a ship 
to command as long as your character stands as well as 
it does now. I hope nothing will occur to render it 


83 


otherwise, and that the words of commendation which 
will come to you from all quarters, will not operate to render 
you less considerate, manly, kind and judicious and 
popular than you have been. I trust I have said enough 
upon this subject, but if I have not, you will receive from 
other sources enough to give you great comfort and satis¬ 
faction amid all your trials. We feel that you must have 
been greatly disappointed in not finding Edward at Canton, 
which was your loss but our gain; we were relieved by 
the fact that Mr. Wolcott was on the spot and had the 
disposition as well as power to render you important aid. 
We are now waiting with great impatience for further 
letters, hoping that in them we may learn the destination 
of the ship and when we may indulge the pleasure of look¬ 
ing for your return.” 


The balance of the letter referred to family matters 
which do not belong here. 

At ten a.m. of the nineteenth of November we got under 
weigh and proceeded down the river. It was not till the 
twenty-fourth that we bade good bye to the muddy waters 
of the Yang-tse River, and it was with no feeling of 
regret. On the twenty-eighth we anchored in Hong 
Kong, and on the twenty-ninth we left for New York, 
with Mr. and Mrs. Toby as passengers. After eight 
days we passed Anjer; passed Cape of Good Hope in 
forty-two days; crossed the line in sixty-two days; had 
a fair run through the northeast trades to 34° north, 
when we had a succession of calms and gales of wind 
from north northeast, so that we did not reach New York 
till the sixth of March, making ninety-seven days from 
Hong Kong. This was a short passage, but if we had had 
good luck from the equator it could hardly have taken over 
eighty-seven. However, I was glad enough to take a 
pilot on board and be relieved of the responsibility. 


84 


I had a most hearty reception from my father and 
brothers and from many captains and old friends. Cap¬ 
tain Nat Palmer was as glad as any one to see me, for 
he had been the one who had urged me on in my career, 
and he appeared well satisfied with his protege. What a 
happy time I had in meeting my mother and sisters! 
and what a big reception I had in the evening! When 
I told of my experience in the hurricane people could 
hardly believe that I was there to tell of it. My happi¬ 
ness that first evening made up for all the trials I had gone 
through. I was made very happy too by my brother 
Abbot, who told me that if I had made the voyage as it 
was laid out when I left New York, the ship would have 
lost forty or fifty thousand dollars, but as she had been 
delayed and made the two trips from Hong Kong, and at 
last brought home the first of the New Year’s teas, she 
would clear more than sixty thousand dollars. 

The next day I went over to the ship, and it was with 
fear and trembling that I saw Captain Nat Palmer com¬ 
ing down the wharf. I knew that the ship was not as 
good as when I left New York; there was much rigging 
that was too large, and the quarter boats were nothing 
like the American boats which I had lost. But when he 
came on board, I pointed out to him all that was amiss, 
and he said to me, “Don’t you worry, you saved your 
ship and saved the insurance companies a lot of money 
and they have got to make everything good, and I shall 
see to it that they do.” 

And he had no trouble about doing it. In a day or 
two they called a survey and I pointed out to them what 
was wrong. They told Captain Palmer to see that every¬ 
thing was made as good as when the ship left New York; 
to have new quarter boats, new rigging, or whatever was 


THE HOUQUA 

On her beam ends in the Indian Ocean, January fifteenth, 1848 









































85 


needed. Captain Palmer took them at their word and 
before she went to sea again she was as good as new in 
every respect. 

A few weeks afterwards my father and brother Abbot 
and Captain N. B. Palmer went with me to the Atlantic 
Insurance Company’s office, where I was interviewed by 
several presidents of insurance companies interested, and 
thanked by them for my good seamanship and for saving 
the ship and cargo. Then Captain Palmer was asked to 
help me pick out the finest chronometer to be had in New 
York and to have a suitable silver plate put upon it. 
After I left them Captain Palmer and I went at once to 
Negus & Co.’s navigation warehouse, and we purchased 
an eight-day chronometer which Mr. Negus guaranteed 
to be the best watch in the city. Its cost was eight hun¬ 
dred dollars; and a silver plate, costing fifty dollars, was 
engraved and put on top of it. The inscription was as 
follows:—“Presented by the Atlantic, Sun, Mercantile 
and Union Mutual Insurance Companies of New York 
and the Insurance Company of North America of Phila¬ 
delphia to Captain Charles P. Low, late master of Ship 
Houqua , as a testimonial of their approbation of his good 
conduct in saving said ship and cargo, after having been 
thrown on her beam ends in the Indian Ocean on the 15th 
of January 1848 in a violent Typhoon, and nearly filled 
with water, but by the extraordinary exertions of the 
Master and crew was righted and subsequently taken 
by them to her port of destination which was 3500 miles 
distant.” The chronometer proved to be one of the finest 
timekeepers ever made; for two or three years it had no 
rate losing or gaining, but ran mean time. 

On the sixth of April, 1849, just one month from my 
arrival in New York, I again sailed in the Houqua for 


86 


China. As usual, a large number of people, with Captain 
Palmer and my brothers and sisters, accompanied the 
vessel to Sandy Hook. Mr. Stephens was mate, and was 
the same one who had helped me so much in fitting the 
ship in Hong Kong; but in those days pretty much all 
the crew were brought on board drunk, and it required 
much patience to deal with them. The sailmaker was a 
hard character and refused to work, and the mate had 
to haul him out of his room, which looked to those on 
board the steam tug so brutal that Captain Palmer was 
requested to take the mate out of the ship. I was very 
angry at his interference, but it was of no use; the pilot 
was ordered to bring the ship to anchor, and the mate and 
myself were taken on board the steamer and went to New 
York, and I had to get another mate. We soon found a 
man whom I was much pleased with, and the next morning 
early I was off for the ship. The new man, Mr. Thayer, 
had a loud, clear and commanding voice, and at first I 
thought I was lucky, at so short notice, to get so good a 
man, but I soon found that he was no sailor, very timid 
about carrying sail and did not keep a good watch. 
The men soon found him out, but I had to put up with 
him till I got to China, where I discharged him. 

The voyage was pleasant. We crossed the line in 
twenty-one days, two days less than on my first voyage, 
passed Cape of Good Hope in forty-six days and anchored 
in Anjer in seventy-eight days from New York—a very 
good passage—and in ninety days anchored in Hong 
Kong on the fourth of July. On the fifth we got under 
weigh and proceeded up the river to Whampoa. I found 
my brother Edward there awaiting me, and we went up 
to Canton together. I had a good room assigned me, and 
after transacting my business had a very pleasant time for 


87 


a few days, when I went back to the ship. My brother 
told me it would be three months before I could load for 
home, so I ordered the topgallant masts sent down on 
deck and the rigging all overhauled, and had a mat 
house built over the ship fore and aft, which protected 
her from the hot sun, for at that time of year it was 
very hot. Under the mat house, however, it was cool 
and pleasant. 

Mr. Thomas Hunt, who left the ship some years before, 
now kept a ship chandler’s store and was quite a rich man 
and married. I spent many pleasant hours on board his 
ship or hulk. Besides, there were many ships in harbor, 
and with no business to do we had leisure for dinner parties. 
Moreover, the merchants came from Canton once a week 
and oftener, and spent the time on the different vessels. 
My brother Edward came down often, and sometimes I 
would go to Canton for a week or ten days. Time passed 
rapidly. At this time very exciting reports came from 
California of the finding of gold, and letters from New 
York stated that the Samuel Russell on arriving home 
would probably load for San Francisco. As I was prom¬ 
ised command of this ship when I got home, I was very 
anxious to be loaded and start on my homeward journey. 
Early in September my brother told me we should be ready 
to sail the last of the month, and by working hard we were 
loaded and started September twentieth down the river. 
We left Macao on the twenty-first, with a fine breeze from 
the north northeast and had two fine days’ run, but after 
that, light, variable winds, mostly ahead, and it was the 
eighteenth of October before we anchored in Anjer, 
twenty-six days from Macao. With a good run across 
the Indian Ocean we passed the Cape of Good Hope 
sixty-seven days out. On January eighth, 1850, we took 


88 


a pilot off Absecom and reached New York in one hun¬ 
dred and nine days from Macao. 

When the pilot came on board the first question I asked 
was, <e Has the Samuel Russell sailed for San Francisco ? ” 
He said not, but that she was to leave the next day. I 
told him to hurry and get to New York for I was to take 
command of her. When the steamer got alongside to 
tow us the Captain said that he was to take me to the 
wharf where the Samuel Russell was loading, and we 
did indeed make fast to the end of her pier. Captain 
Theodore Palmer, who was in command of the Samuel 
Russell , came on board and wanted to know if I would 
take command. I told him I would if I could settle up 
the business of my last voyage in time. He replied that 
I should have two or three days. He then went on board 
of the ship and ordered the mate to have all the sails taken 
out of the fore peak and put in the cabin, to make room 
for more freight. The mate said, 44 Captain Low is going 
in the ship, is he not ? ” and Captain Palmer said, 44 Yes, 
he will take command.” The mate said, 44 1 knew it, for 
if you were going it would not be done, for the ship is 
loaded now as deep as a sand barge.” And she was; 
her scuppers were not more than a foot out of the water. 
There was plenty of freight offering, and the ship had a 
freight list of nearly seventy-five thousand dollars, and a 
dollar and a half a foot, or sixty dollars a ton, for all she 
had on board. My brothers met me at the wharf and I 
told them I was ready to take command, but they thought 
that I ought not to; that I should take more time on shore. 
I told them the shore was nothing to me and so the com¬ 
mand was handed over to me. 

It was a busy time for me; I had to enter the Houqua 
at the Custom-house and pay off my crew, and settle up 


89 


the business of the voyage. But Captain Palmer helped 
me by keeping charge of the Samuel Russell and getting 
her ready for sea. I had a most pleasant time visiting my 
relatives, eating sometimes two or three dinners in one 
day so as to get around the family. I sent my clothes on 
board the Samuel Russell , dirty ones and all, (not having 
time to get any washing done, as I expected to sail in 
three days.) As it happened, a strong easterly gale set in, 
and detained the ship for awhile, but on the fifteenth of 
January, six days after I took the pilot, bound in, I left 
the pilot at Sandy Hook, bound out on a voyage around 
the world. 

We had a fresh wind from the westward, and when we 
reached the Gulf Stream we found how deep in the water 
the ship was, and how slowly she rose to the seas. The 
wind increased to a heavy gale, and while running under 
close-reefed topsails and foresail a sea boarded us over 
the starboard quarter. The mate, Mr. Limeburner and 
myself were swept more than sixty feet and brought up 
in the main rigging. The man at the wheel was carried 
into the mizzen rigging. The binnacle and the two large 
compasses were swept overboard. The mate was the 
first to get to the wheel and it was in time to save the ship 
from broaching to. None of us were hurt, but the decks 
were filled with water fore and aft. Left without com¬ 
passes we had to steer all night by keeping the wind astern, 
and as it was steady from the northwest we kept on the 
right course. In the morning we had a look for other 
compasses but could find only a boat’s compass about 
six inches in diameter. I had the carpenter take my dog 
house and make a binnacle to use till he could make a 
proper one; and we steered with this small compass till 
we reached below Rio Janeiro. We had three passengers, 


90 


a Mr. Robinson, a Mr. Clark and a Dr. Bradshaw. The 
latter was a druggist and was a very simple-minded man. 
He had kept a small drug store in the Bowery, New York, 
and he told me he had resided in one place for twenty 
years and in all that time he had never tasted an oyster. 
Mr. Robinson and Mr. Clark also came from the Bowery. 
They wore slouched hats with two letters on them, F. 
F. f standing for Funny Fellows , a club of that name. 
They were chock full of fun as well as good singers and 
good story tellers, and the poor doctor had to take many a 
joke which they played upon him. He learned more of 
the world from them than he ever knew before. Mr. 
Limeburner, the chief mate, was from Maine, and had 
been in the employ of my brothers for a number of years; 
he was a splendid sailor. Mr. Hayes was second mate, 
also an A 1 man. He was short and stout, but very active 
and was always on the watch. We had a good crew and 
everything went on smoothly. The small compass gave 
us a great deal of trouble as it could not be seen distinctly 
day or night, but we managed to get along and in twenty 
days we crossed the line. This was the third voyage in 
which I had made the passage to the line in less than 
twenty-three days, a great run of luck. In twenty-nine 
days I was in the latitude of Rio Janeiro, and in the morn¬ 
ing we made a large ship ahead, running in for that port. 
As we got near to her I made her out to be a seventy-four 
gun ship, the American line-of-battle ship, Ohio. I took 
in my skysail and royal, hauled up the mainsail and hoisted 
my ensign Union down, showing I was in distress and 
wanted a boat sent to me, but no attention whatever was 
paid to my signals. The Ohio was just back from a long 
voyage and in a hurry to get to port. When I arrived in 
San Francisco I sent a protest to my brothers, and they 


91 


sent it to Washington, but I never heard that anything 
came of it. I was very angry for I wanted one or more 
compasses to take me around the Horn. Two days 
afterwards I spoke a ship loaded with passengers, some 
three hundred or more. She hove to for me, and my 
mate went on board and returned with two fine, new 
compasses, which the captain loaned to me, only re¬ 
questing me to leave them with his consignees at San 
Francisco. I regret that my journal of this voyage was 
lost and that I cannot remember the name of the Captain 
or ship. I left the compasses as desired, but he had not 
arrived before I left. 

We were now getting into waters that I had never sailed 
in before and had no experience in. The barometer was 
unusually low and I lost some days in rounding the 
Horn, from carrying small canvas in preparation for gales 
that never came. But we had very high seas, and the 
ship’s decks were flooded day after day. Sometimes she 
would go under water and it seemed as though she would 
never come up. Rounding the Horn is going from 50° 
South in the Atlantic Ocean to 50° South in the Pacific 
Ocean, and we made a very good passage of seventeen 
days. From 50° South we had mostly light winds, and 
crossed the line in the Pacific, ninety days from New York. 
From the line we were nineteen days to San Francisco. 
We made the Farallones early in the morning and spoke 
a pilot boat. I asked the price, and was told eight dollars 
a foot—that meant on the number of feet the ship drew 
in the water. Now I had an excellent chart of the harbor, 
and I thought if I could not take my ship into such a 
harbor I ought not to command one, and I refused to 
take the pilot. He said I would have to pay half price 
any way. I replied that it was better than paying full 


92 


price, which would have amounted to one hundred and 
sixty dollars. As we entered the Golden Gate the wind 
increased rapidly, and we went in flying, and came to 
anchor just where I would have done if I had known all 
about it. I anchored about one mile and a half from 
shore, directly abreast of the office of my agents, Ma- 
condray & Co. Captain Macondray and Mr. Watson, 
his partner, came on board at once, and congratulated me 
on my short passage, and said it was the shortest by twelve 
days that had been made. Great placards were posted 
in the streets saying, “Shortest passage ever made from 
New York, one hundred and nine days. Ship Samuel 
Russell , Captain Charles Low, arrived this morning. ,, 
The next day, as soon as I entered the ship at the Custom¬ 
house, D. L. Ross & Co. sent a note to Mr. Limeburner, 
the mate, offering to give him one hundred and fifty dollars 
in gold if he would send their goods on shore at once. 
As these were boots and shoes, light goods, and had nearly 
all been stowed in the cabin, ninety cases were immediately 
put in the lighter and sent ashore. The other cases were 
found a day or two later, and again Mr. Limeburner re¬ 
ceived a note saying, “We are still ready to pay the one 
hundred and fifty dollars if you have found the balance.” 
And he then sent the remainder. Nothing more was said 
about it till a few days before we went to sea. My mate 
asked me what I would give him for that note of D. L. 
Ross & Co. I told him I would give him fifty dollars. 
He replied, “You are too willing, I guess I will wait.” 
A day later I went to my consignees and found a note for 
the mate from D. L. Ross & Co., saying the money was 
ready when he chose to call for it. I had a Mr. Wilkinson 
my discharging clerk, with me, and I endorsed the note 
and sent him to them and he returned with the one hun- 


93 


dred and fifty dollars in gold. When I handed it to Mr. 
Limeburner he was struck dumb. “Well,” he said, “I 
never earned so much money so easy, I would like to 
bet I lose half of it before I am ten days older.” He went 
on shore and bought a watch and chain, paying seventy- 
five dollars for them. We went to sea and one morning 
he went out on the jib-boom and the watch chain caught 
in a hook and hauled the watch out of his pocket and 
broke the chain, and both went overboard. When he 
came aft to me he said, “I told you, Captain Low, I 
would lose half of that money in less than ten days.” 

And now to go back to our arrival in San Francisco. 
Captain Macondray told me all about the mining ex¬ 
citement and said that my crew, if not my mates, would 
all leave for the mines the first chance they could get. 
I had a fine crew and good officers, and I was loath to 
have them leave me, so as soon as Captain Macondray 
and Mr. Watson went on shore, I called all hands aft and 
told them I was aware that they wished to go to the 
mines, but that there was no hurry about it, and that if they 
would discharge the cargo I would pay them the wages they 
shipped for, and while they worked discharging cargo 
would allow them five dollars a day, stevedore wages. 
They could then leave me, if they wanted to, and be in 
good shape to begin work at the mines. They readily 
agreed and my three officers agreed to keep watch at 
night, a regular anchor watch, an officer and two men, 
relieved every four hours. I felt quite safe and was quite 
sure I would get my cargo discharged in good shape. I 
had lost one of my quarter boats in the gale a short time 
after leaving New York, and had but one left, which I 
kept at the davits. When we had discharged all but 
fifty tons of cargo, I came on board in the afternoon and 


94 


was told by the mate that a very nice quarter boat had 
been picked up adrift and that it was towing astern. I 
told the men I would advertise it, and whatever reward 
was paid for it I would divide among them. I turned in 
that night and awoke at six a.m. and went on deck. No¬ 
body was on deck, neither officers nor men, nor watch. I 
walked aft and looked over the stern; the boat was 
gone. I looked at the davits; the quarter boat was 
gone. I went to the mates’ room and found the chief 
and second mates snoring in their bunks. I called them 
out and told them to muster all hands and see who were 
left. I then found that the third mate, sailmaker and 
nine men had cleared out, taking two or three light sails, 
a barrel of biscuit, all the cooked provisions and consider¬ 
able salt beef and salt pork. Here was a nice mess! I 
had no boat to go on shore with and was a mile and a half 
from shore. Shortly after breakfast, Captain Prescott of 
the brig Eagle came on board and I went on shore with 
him and offered a reward of twenty-five dollars to any one 
who would bring the boat back. These men were so 
foolish as to leave the wages due them and as much as 
one hundred dollars apiece besides, when in three days 
they could have had it in gold, and gone off comfortably 
and honorably. It saved me enough, however, to pay 
stevedores to discharge the balance of the cargo, and 
much more besides. 

Some ten days after my boat was stolen, my consignees 
were dining on board on a Sunday, and after dinner we 
were sitting on the quarter deck, smoking our cigars, when 
a boat pulled alongside and a man came on deck, walked 
aft and asked for Captain Low. I replied that I was the 
man. He said, “I understand you have lost a boat.” I 
told him I had and he wanted me to describe it, which I 


95 


did. He said, “ I have your boat.” I told him to bring 
it back and I would pay him twenty-five dollars, the re¬ 
ward I had offered. He said, “ Captain Low, I will bring 
your boat back for one hundred and fifty dollars.” I told 
him I would not pay more than twenty-five, but I would 
have him arrested for having stolen property in his pos¬ 
session. He turned on his heel and was over the side before 
I could get up out of my seat. The next morning I went 
on shore and went into the office, when Captain Ma- 
condray handed me a note. I opened it and found it 
came from this boatman’s lawyers, saying I must pay the 
man one hundred and fifty dollars, or they should bring 
suit against me for the amount. I was dumbfounded to 
be made to pay twice the value of the boat which was 
my own property. I showed it to Captain Macondray 
and he smiled and told me I was in California where 
they did strange things, and he thought we had better 
go and have a talk with the lawyers. They made out a 
very plausible case for the man—said he was getting five 
to ten dollars a day, which he would lose, and besides it 
had cost him twenty-five dollars to get to San Francisco 
from where he found the boat, and then again, much 
more expense would be incurred if he went after the boat 
and brought it down to me. After talking a long time I 
paid him fifty dollars and agreed to send after the boat. 
It cost me fifty dollars more to get it, but I could not do 
without it and I could not buy a new one for less than 
two hundred dollars. Such was San Francisco in 1850. 

After I lost my boat I had my carpenter build a skiff 
that would hold comfortably four people. Up to this 
time I had not been ashore after dark—there were sights 
enough to see in the daytime. Gambling houses and 
saloons were all over the city; on the sidewalks you 


96 


could see tables with piles of gold, and rough miners 
gambling from morning till night, and inside the saloons 
from night till morning. One afternoon Captain Kane, 
of the ship Tarolinta , wanted me to meet him on shore 
after dark and go and see the sights. I had no objection 
and after dinner I took with me Mr. Wilkinson, my dis¬ 
charging clerk, and went on shore. (Our cargo was such 
an assorted one and there were so many consignees, 
that my agents would not trust the first officer to keep the 
account; he had to look out for other things and might 
miss the tally and lose track of some goods; so they 
preferred to pay a man for the express purpose. Before 
the cargo was all discharged I found the wisdom of it.) 
We two pulled our skiff on shore and met Captain Kane 
and first went to the largest and most luxurious gambling 
place in the city, called the “Bella Union.” It was a 
large building on the Plaza, lighted up with chandeliers 
filled with candles and oil lamps. As we entered we saw 
that the first gambling table was run by a large, coarse- 
looking woman. The game was roulette. I brought 
ashore with me three dollars and I put down a fifty-cent 
piece on the “seven to one.” With singularly good luck 
I won every time till I had over thirty dollars. Captain 
Kane and Mr. Wilkinson did not have the same good 
fortune, but I believe lost nothing. As I did not desire 
to gamble for the sake of gambling, but merely to see the 
different games, we went to another table, and I soon 
lost all I had made, and only had fifty cents left, while 
my companions had done well, so I told them I must 
“go back to the old lady;” and I did and won over thirty 
dollars again. In a very short time I was reduced at 
another table to my fifty cents and again had recourse 
to the roulette, where I won some twenty dollars. Then 


97 


I tried another game and was fortunate enough to win 
over fifty dollars. It was getting late, and we had seen 
most of the gambling games, but we went to try one more 
and I lost most of my gains. It was a wonderful and 
most exciting experience. I presume there were some 
eight hundred or a thousand men and women in the hall, 
a band playing, and a free lunch set in four different parts 
of the hall. The men were all excited; piles of gold dust 
were on the tables, and next to them the owners laid their 
revolvers and knives. I had a few dollars left, and I 
suggested trying the old lady at the roulette table again; 
but my luck was gone and I left the place without a cent. 
I did not feel very badly for I had really lost only three 
dollars and I had received more than their value in fun 
and experience. We had a worse time before we regained 
my ship. 

It was near twelve o’clock when we got into our skiff 
and dark as pitch, with a strong ebb tide running. Cap¬ 
tain Kane and Mr. Wilkinson took the oars, and I steered. 
Captain Kane and myself both realized the danger we 
were in, and concluded to catch hold of the first vessel we 
came across. We soon saw a barque ahead with a scow 
astern; we were being rapidly borne by the tide away from 
her, and just as we were alongside of the scow Captain 
Kane broke his oar. Mr. Wilkinson, however, managed 
to catch the side of the scow, and we all jumped into her. 
It was a flat-bottomed craft, used for lightering coal, only 
about five feet deep. As we stepped into the bottom 
there was a foot of water in it, cold as ice. The wind was 
cold too, and though we hailed the barque we could get 
no answer. On looking around, however, we found a 
small yawl boat towing astern. As my skiff had floated 
off into the Pacific Ocean, Captain Kane took the yawl 


98 


and said he would go on shore and get a boatman to 
come out and take us off. We wished him good luck, 
but I for one did not expect he would find us before day¬ 
light. Mr. Wilkinson and myself got up onto the after 
end of the scow, and there we sat, wet up to the knees; 
there was no place to walk and we were half frozen. We 
sat there over an hour, when we heard a hail from Captain 
Kane, which we answered, and he was soon alongside 
with a Whitehall boat and two experienced boatmen. 
They hesitated a long time about trying to find my ship, 
but wanted to take us on shore to stay till daylight. How¬ 
ever, they consented to try for the ship, and about four 
o’clock in the morning we got on board, all tired out and 
half frozen. We had to pay the boatmen a good, round 
sum for the night’s work. I lost my skiff, and the Captain 
of the barque lost his boat, for Captain Kane left it on 
shore. I believe, however, that Captain Kane found him 
out and told him where he could get it. It was lucky 
that we got safely back to the ship, for it is no child’s 
play to be in San Francisco Bay on a dark night, with a 
strong ebb tide running, in a poor boat and with only 
one oar. A few days after this experience, my second 
mate, with the men whom I had sent up the river after 
the quarter boat, arrived safely, the boat in good order. 
I was relieved to see them, for it had been very uncertain 
whether they would come back or not. 

We were now nearly ready for sea, and the question 
was where to get a crew. The shipping officers told me 
it would be impossible to get sailors to take my ship to 
China, as sailors were getting one hundred and fifty dollars 
in gold to go to Honolulu, and I should have to take my 
chances of getting men there from the whalers, or take 
Kanakas. I had to do this. I shipped fifteen men at 


99 


that price, and on the fourteenth of June I went on shore 
to get my crew on board. I had some eight or ten on the 
wharf and we were waiting for the rest, when the cry of 
“Fire!” was raised, and before I had time to turn around 
my men were gone. I discharged the boatman, and 
concluded to go myself. The fire started just a little above 
the wharf at Washington Street and spread at a terrible 
rate. I had a great many friends in the city, and I helped 
as much as I could, and worked all day long; but it was 
of no use, for the fire had the most of the city in its grasp 
and devoured everything before it. Houses built of sheet 
iron curled up and were destroyed almost as soon as the 
wooden houses next to them. The firm of G. B. Post 
& Co., my ship chandlers, was located on the beach near 
Market Street—it is now Montgomery Street. Their 
building was a one story, wooden building, and at least 
one hundred feet away from any other. I got down there 
about four in the afternoon and proposed to Captain 
Parker that we should cover the building with blankets 
and wet them down with salt water. He agreed to it, 
and we cut open several bales of blankets and with a 
strong force of men to help, soon covered the roof and sides. 
We kept at work pouring salt water on them wdiile the 
fire was raging in a lumber yard near by. Meantime the 
Mayor and city officials had come on the scene. They, 
as well as most of the citizens, had too much liquor on 
board and were very much excited, and ordered the build¬ 
ing to be blown up. They had already placed powder in 
the house before they thought of calling us from the roof. 
We scrambled down pretty quickly and protested against 
such a foolish thing, but it was of no use; a train was 
laid to the powder and aw^ay she went, and in less than a 
half hour nothing was left but ashes. I lost a very fine 


100 


overcoat that I had left in the office. When the fire had 
about burned itself out I went across Market Street 
to Macondray & Co.’s. This being a very wide street, 
there was no danger; but as they had seventy-five thousand 
dollars of the ship’s money, I was still anxious, and re¬ 
mained there all night. The next day buildings were 
going up in all parts of the burnt district. Never were 
there a more plucky set of men than the San Francisco 
merchants. 

As early as I could I went to see my shipping merchants 
to find my crew, but little satisfaction could I get from 
them. However, I was determined to try for the men, 
and with two policemen and one of the shipping officers 
I went to a sailor boarding house, which we found filled 
with sailors sitting around tables, with piles of gold before 
them, gambling and drinking. As soon as I made 
my appearance they sang out, “Hallo, Captain! come 
and have a drink!” I asked if the crew of the Samuel 
Russell were there, and they replied, “Oh yes, Cap., we 
are all here and we are going to stay for the present.” 
And some of them began to blackguard the ship, calling 
her all sorts of names, and I saw it was time to leave. 
Sailors in those days had no liking for captains and officers 
of ships and the policemen advised me to wait awhile. 
The shipping officers said they would try and find a crew 
as soon as possible and I did wait until the next day, 
when I found a crew willing to ship by the run to Hono¬ 
lulu. They wanted one hundred and seventy-five dollars 
apiece and were to be discharged as soon as the ship was 
safely anchored at Honolulu. My conscience went against 
it, but Macondray & Co. advised me to take them while 
I could get them, so I shipped fifteen very good men and 
got them on board. On the sixteenth of June we sailed, 


101 


but I had to pay every man his one hundred and seventy- 
five dollars in gold before they would go to work getting 
the anchor. I was glad enough to get away from such a 
gambling den and be at sea again. 

The first two days we had a fine breeze, but afterwards 
had light and baffling winds. We however made a very 
good passage of fourteen days to Honolulu. We ran in 
as close to the breakers as I dared, and let go the anchor, 
but the chain fouled and would not run out fast enough 
to get a hold, and I let go the second anchor. But the 
ship had got stern-way and was drifting off the land very 
fast. At that time there were some fifty fathoms of chain 
out on each anchor and when w T e went to work to get 
them it proved to be a big job. An English pilot came 
on board and told me I must slip my anchors, but I told 
him I was going to try for them first. We hove away for 
some time when a French man-of-war, which was lying 
there, sent a crew of twenty men and an officer to help 
me. They were too strong for my windlass, which was 
broken by the great strain. The pilot was very mad and 
the men called him a hog in French. He came to me and 
told me of it and I said I did not understand French, but 
I thought they were about right. As I had no tackles 
strong enough to get the anchors, the French officer went 
on board his ship and brought back more men with their 
heavy heaving-in tackles, and after working all night we 
secured both anchors. When daylight appeared we were 
nearly out of sight of Honolulu and dead to leeward, and 
had a job to beat back, the Frenchmen on board helping 
us in every way. It was four in the afternoon when 
Captain Meiggs, an American pilot, came on board and 
took us safely into the harbor. The French sailors would 
not leave us till all the sails were furled and deck cleared. 


102 


I gave the officer one hundred and fifty dollars to divide 
amongst his men, but I doubt if they got a cent, for the 
next day as I was pulling on shore, one of the French boats 
was going out, and the coxswain hailed me and asked me 
if I did not give money to the officer for them. I told 
them yes, and how much. I heard them say “ S acre- 
dame!” and jabber in French till they were out of sight. 
As soon as we were safely anchored the men I had shipped 
in San Francisco took their leave and went on shore; 
their time was up and they had earned their money very 
easily. It took fifteen days to repair the windlass. In 
New York it could have been done in four or five. 

Honolulu then was a very small place, and about the 
only business there consisted in supplying whalers with 
stores, and shipping their oil to New York and New Bed¬ 
ford. Kamehameha Third w r as King and he had many 
nobles in his household. His Prime Minister was John 
Stephens, a fine looking man, six feet tall and large in 
proportion. Through the American Minister I sent him 
an invitation to dine with me, with several of the most 
prominent members of his council, and he accepted. 
He was much pleased with the ship and before he left he 
invited me to use his horses at any time, but not being a 
horseman, I did not take advantage of his offer. John 
Stephens came to me one day and wanted me to join a 
party to go up the valley on a picnic, to which there were 
several Americans going. We went and had a very good 
time. The capacity of these natives for stowing away 
liquor was something marvellous; a bottle of brandy and 
a bottle of champagne were nothing to them. On the 
Fourth of July all the Americans in the place and some 
fifty natives were invited to a native feast at Waiatiti, 
some eight miles from Honolulu, where, as I recollect, over 


103 


one hundred people sat down to dinner, and such a dinner! 
I never tasted meats and fowls so beautifully cooked. A 
large trench had been dug and large fires built near it in 
which stones were heated red hot. They were then placed 
in the trench, and turkeys, chickens, mutton and all the 
eatables were done up in plantain leaves and placed on 
the stones and the trench filled with earth. All the juices 
of the meats were thus preserved and they were cooked to a 
nicety and were perfectly delicious. Champagne and other 
drinkables were in profusion and the crowd was a jolly 
one. It was the biggest dinner I ever attended, but I 
was glad to get back to the ship. I think the natives 
kept it up all night. 

The windlass having been repaired and all made ready 
for sea, and being unable to secure any white sailors, I 
shipped seventeen Kanakas. They had never been to 
sea, and could talk very little English, but they were born 
sailors, strong and active and very willing, and they learned 
very quickly. Just before going to sea, my second mate 
fell down the hold and broke his collar bone, and was laid 
up. As I had no third mate, I had to stand my watch, 
and I told my mate that we must work hard to train these 
Kanakas to take in sail in a hurry, for we were going to 
China in the typhoon season, and it was necessary to be 
able to shorten sail quickly. So in my morning watch, 
from four to eight, I would exercise them in reefing and 
furling the sails on the mizzen-mast, and the mate did the 
same in his watch. When about two miles outside of the 
harbor, I found eight or ten women on board, wives of the 
Kanaka sailors. The pilot told me they could take care 
of themselves and that I need not worry. When he was 
ready to leave I ordered the women to go. They obeyed 
very leisurely, took off their clothes and made them into 


104 


bundles, which they fastened on top of their heads, went 
down the side ladder, dropped overboard and started for 
shore. We watched them till they were out of sight. 
They made great headway and they must have covered 
the distance in a little over an hour. The Kanakas I 
had shipped at fifteen dollars a month, and I gave bonds 
for five hundred dollars to return them to Honolulu. 
We had fine weather and many calms, and the mate and 
myself exercised the men every morning till they could 
handle the canvas very quickly. The mate was rather 
rough on them and I was continually telling him to “ have 
patience.” One morning I had the watch and had just 
called the mate at seven bells, when a squall came down 
upon us and I ordered the royals taken in. One Kanaka 
was rather slow in getting along and I gave him a rap 
over the head and started him moving. Just as I did so, 
I heard the voice of the mate saying, “Have patience, 
Captain Low, have patience!” He had just turned out, 
and was standing in the companion-way, and enjoyed 
giving me some of my own medicine. 

Without having encountered any bad weather we 
anchored in Hong Kong, fifty-one days from San Fran¬ 
cisco, having sailed seven thousand four hundred and 
sixty-two miles. We were ordered to Whampoa at once, 
and we arrived there August twenty-fifth, 1850. 

My brother Edward was there to meet me and he told 
me it would probably be two or three months before I 
could load for home, but that I should load at Whampoa. 
In coming up the river with very high spring tides, the 
pilot ran us ashore on the first bar of the river, where we 
lay for twelve hours, and at low water the ship keeled 
over on her beam ends. It being very hot, my splendid 
Newfoundland dog went mad, and tumbled into the 


105 


hold and was killed. I thought everything of him and 
I felt as badly as if I had lost a dear friend. 

When we got off the bar I thought best to take the ship 
into the dry dock, and as a result of the survey made I 
was recommended to have her caulked and coppered. 
It was certainly necessary, for her copper was worn very 
badly. She had come to no harm while on shore, but the 
copper had worn out. As we were stripping the copper 
off we had to have a strict watch set to see that the China¬ 
men did not steal it, but instead of the Chinamen, it was 
my Kanaka crew who were caught stealing, so I was very 
glad that an opportunity occurred to send them back to 
the Islands. I had to pay for each one’s passage fifty 
dollars, and I got a Consul’s certificate showing I had kept 
to my bond. 

The time passed very pleasantly as usual in Whampoa; 
hardly a day went by but that a dinner was given on some 
ship, and clerks came down from Canton and joined in; 
so with trips to Canton for three or four days or a week, 
the time slipped away very rapidly. About the tenth of 
October, 1850, we began to load for New York, and on 
the twenty-eighth we finished and got ready for sea. To 
my surprise my brother said he was going home with me, 
also Mr. Hallam, tea-taster for Russell & Co., Mr. Bur- 
dett and his sister, Mrs. Haskell, and two or three others 
whose names I have forgotten. We had a cabinful and 
all were pleasant people. By October twenty-ninth we 
were out in the China Sea and homeward bound. I had 
secured a ton of ice, and I gave it in charge to Mr. Hallam, 
who took such good care of it that it lasted to the Cape 
of Good Hope, forty-eight days out. He would fill bottles 
of water and place them on top of the ice and only allow 
ice water at meal times. 


106 


During the voyage home my brother gave me a book 
describing a trip from New York through the southern 
states to Mobile and New Orleans and up the Mississippi 
to Lake Michigan and Straits of Mackinaw, then down 
through the St. Lawrence to Montreal and Quebec, down 
Lake Champlain and Lake George, through the White 
Mountains to Maine, and back through Boston to New 
York. It was the most interesting book of travel I ever 
read, and every night my brother talked it over with me, 
and we decided that I must stay at home one voyage and 
take the trip with him. I was very much excited over it 
and promised him I would go with him surely. We had 
a jolly crowd on board and Mr. Burdett had a splendid 
cornet which he knew how to play. This enlivened the 
evenings and helped to pass away the time. We crossed 
the equator in the Atlantic in seventy-one days, and had 
a fine run of eighteen days to Sandy Hook. We carried 
warm -weather all the way and on the twenty-sixth day of 
January, 1851, when we took the pilot, the thermometer 
was 76° and we had not changed our white linen jackets 
and trousers. On getting inside the Hook the weather 
grew chilly and we went on board the tug boat to shave, 
as we had no fire on the ship. We hauled alongside of 
the wharf early in the afternoon. At night the wind 
came out a howling gale from the northwest and next 
morning the thermometer stood two degrees below zero, 
a fall of seventy-eight degrees in less than twenty-four 
hours! It was the greatest change in temperature I ever 
experienced, and it took hold of my brother and myself 
as we went from Brooklyn to New York. I was thankful, 
though, that we got into port as we did, for otherwise there 
would have been a week’s detention with a ship covered 
with ice. 


107 


The first day after my arrival I had to enter the ship at 
the Custom-house, make up my accounts, pay off the 
crew and finish everything that pertained to the voyage. 
My brother was with me all the time and we still talked 
of our trip till we had been in port four or five days. But 
when I went to the office one morning my brother Abbot 
called me to him and said he wanted me to go up to 
Westervelt’s yard and see the new ship they were building, 
and see what I thought of her. Of course Edward went 
with me, and I found a ship on the stocks a third 
larger than the Samuel Russell. We went all over her, 
and a finer and handsomer ship was never built. I ex¬ 
pressed myself as highly delighted with her, and said to 
myself that if I could have command of such a vessel 
it would be the height of my ambition. We went back to 
the office and my brother wanted to know how I was 
pleased. I told him she was the most beautiful vessel I 
had ever seen. He replied that he wanted me to go the 
next morning and take charge of her and see to her fitting 
out. I almost lost my breath, and turning around to my 
brother Edward said, “ The Straits of Mackinaw and that 
delightful trip of ours must be put off; I would not give up 
such a ship as the N. B. Palmer for all the pleasure trips 
in the world.” All he said was, “ I do not blame you.” 

A. A. Low & Bros, handed the Samuel Russell over to 
Captain Limeburner, who was well worthy of the com¬ 
mand, and I took charge of the N. B. Palmer. I had very 
little to do, however, till she was launched, as her hull 
was not completed, but I went to the ship yard every 
day, being greatly interested in the work. I often spent 
many hours in the Novelty Iron Works close by, watching 
the men handle the great shafts of iron and other large 
pieces of machinery. 


108 


Sometime in March, 1851, the ship was ready for 
launching; she had all her spars aloft, royal and skysail 
yards crossed, and she looked splendid—no ballast but 
her chain cables in the hold. Captain Palmer, to my 
disgust, put me in charge of a steam tug with a large 
number of young girls and men and women of his ac¬ 
quaintance, to go and see the launching from the water. 
I wanted to be launched in the ship. However, I had a 
jolly crowd to take care of and we had a fine lunch, cham¬ 
pagne and cigars on board, and a better view of the launch¬ 
ing than they had from the shore. It was a splendid 
sight to see that huge craft slide down the ways into her 
native element. After it was over, we went back to Peck 
Slip and landed the passengers and I went up to the ship¬ 
yard and found the ship alongside the wharf, leaking like a 
sieve, and Captain Palmer in no good humor. It was too 
late to get her on the dry dock so we had to have men to 
pump her out every four hours through the night. Upon 
getting her to the dry dock the next day, and up high and 
dry, we found a hole where a locust^ trenail had been left 
out. This piece of locust was used to fasten the plank 
to the timbers, and was an inch and a quarter in diameter; 
and a lot of water can be forced through such a hole. 
After being repaired the ship was towed down to Peck 
Slip to load for California. 

As there was now little for me to do, I proposed to my 
brothers to give me a vacation. Since going to sea I 
had had no let up, and I thought I deserved it; besides, 
my brother Haskell was anxious that I should get married, 
and I was willing. He said there was a Miss D. who lived 
in South Danvers, the handsomest girl in the town, and 
through his brother-in-law, who lived there, he would give 
me an introduction. So having received permission to 


109 


leave, I started one fine afternoon in April for my vacation 
trip. I first went to New Hampshire to see some old 
friends of mine and then to Salem, Mass. I put up at 
the Essex House, and sallied out from there to South 
Danvers, and found out Mr. William Cutler and was 
received very cordially. I was invited to a party the next 
evening to meet a number of young ladies, and Miss D. 
was to be one of them. I do not remember much about 
any of them, but I do know I was not smitten by the 
beauty of Miss D. I did not take to her at all, though she 
was handsome. Night after night I was invited to parties, 
but I was not at first carried away by any of the young 
ladies of South Danvers. Finally, at one of the usual 
gatherings, it happened that eight or ten young ladies 
were asked to sing, but each and every one had a cold—or 
something else was the matter—and wished to be excused, 
until at last a very prim young girl with black eyes, was 
asked. She said not a word but without any affectation 
went to the piano, and played and sang as long as they 
wanted her to. As soon as I heard her voice I went and 
leaned over the piano and looked at her, and I was a 
“goner.” I said to myself, “That is the girl for me/' 
I ate a philopena with her and after the party I went 
back to the Hotel and was happy. The next morning I 
went to see her to philopena her but she opened the 
door and was too smart for me and philopened me, just 
what I wanted her to do. I had hired a horse and green 
chaise, and I asked her to go and take a ride. She said 
she could not go without her mother’s consent. That 
was all right, and we soon had that consent, and were off. 
Where we went I do not know, but we must have driven 
fifteen or twenty miles, and I had never driven a horse 
before! But I did finely. When we got back to the house 


110 


her cousin was there and I got him to hold the horse till 
we got out. (I was rather uncertain about how to bring 
the team to an anchor.) There is not much more to say. 
I was very happy, and forgot all about my ship and that 
I was captain of one and had got to leave my beloved, till 
I was rudely awakened by a letter from my father, asking 
where I was, and telling me that the ship was almost ready 
for sea and that I ought to be on hand attending to my 
duty. I believe I had not written a word home since I 
left. I immediately got ready to return. I think I had 
known Miss Tucker some six days or a week. I pro¬ 
posed to her and was accepted. I left at once for New 
York and arrived at my home in Brooklyn about ten 
o’clock at night, and found my mother sitting up for me. 
She cried out, “ Charles, where have you been ? ” I told 
her I had been getting engaged and then I had to tell her 
all about it. Well, she was very much surprised, but on 
the whole, pleased. I reported the next morning on board 
the ship, and was not pleased at having been hurried home, 
for I found it would be many weeks before the ship was 
ready for sea. However, I went to work, and my story 
became known to all the family. 

After I had been at home about a week, I was on board 
ship one Saturday afternoon, when at about three o’clock 
my brother Abbot, with Captain Palmer came on board. 
I suppose I looked rather disconsolate, for my brother 
said, “Charlie, you would like to go to South Danvers, 
would you not?” I told him, “I would indeed,” and 
Captain Palmer spoke up and said, “ Why should he not 
go ? ” and my brother said, “ You have time to catch the 
boat at five o’clock, but not much to spare,” and he handed 
me fifteen or twenty dollars and told me to be off. Well, 
I had to fly, for I must go to Brooklyn and pack my valise 


Ill 


and then get over to Pier No. 1, North River, New York, 
to take the Bay State , Captain Jewett, for Fall River— 
But I did it and had time to spare—I only had a few days 
to spend with my betrothed, and then back to the ship I 
went and on the sixth of May we left New York for San 
Francisco with light winds from the southwest. In 
latitude 82° north, longitude 51° 34' west we passed the 
Brig Emblem of Halifax, water-logged and abandoned, 
mainmast gone a few feet above the deck, foremast and 
fore-topmast and bowsprit and jib-boom standing. It 
had evidently been abandoned for some time and we did 
not stop as there was nothing to be gained. We crossed 
the line twenty-eight days from New York. It was no 
fault of the ship, but of the weather, that the passage was 
so much longer than my two previous voyages, for the ship 
was all I could wish for, and much faster than any ship I 
had ever sailed in, and a splendid sea boat in heavy weather. 

On the sixth of June we passed the Island of Fernando 
Noronha off the coast of Brazil, a Portuguese convict 
settlement in 5° south latitude. On the ninth passed 
Pernambuco; about ten miles off the town looked very 
pretty with its white houses. With moderate breezes 
along the South American coast we made Staten Land 
on the third of July, and on the sixth passed Cape Horn, 
sixty-one days from New York. We crossed the line in 
the Pacific in eighty-eight days and on the twenty-first of 
August entered San Francisco Bay, one hundred and seven 
days from New York, two days shorter time than my 
passage in the Samuel Russell. The pilot came to an 
anchor some three miles from the wharf, refusing to take 
the ship any further till next day. I had my boat lowered 
and manned, and rowed to the city, where I met Mr. 
Sanford, the agent for A. A. Low & Bros. He was a 


112 


regular driver, a Nantucket man, and he wanted to know 
why I had not brought the ship up near the wharf. I told 
him “ The pilot refused to bring her any nearer/’ and he 
said, “The ship must come up to the wharf,” and I said, 
“If she must come up, she must,” and having found the 
wharf we were to tie up to, I went back on board the ship 
and told the pilot, “ The ship must go to the wharf at once.” 
He said he would not take her. I told him then that I 
would, and I ordered up all hands and set all the sails, 
skysail and all. There was an ebb tide, and the wind 
light abeam and I knew I could take the ship right along¬ 
side of the wharf. We got under weigh and went along 
finely. I knew that sails would stop a ship, as well as 
send her ahead, and I kept every stitch of canvas on her, 
so that if I missed the wharf I could still keep command 
of her and try again, but there was no occasion, for as 
soon as I got near enough I backed the main-yard and 
went alongside the wharf so easily that there was hardly 
a jar. The steamer Senator was lying alongside of the 
next wharf and my flying-jib-boom just lifted two of her 
planks off the wheel-box. A great crowd on the wharf 
cheered me most heartily. Mr. Sanford cried out, “Well 
done!” As soon as we were made fast I took in the 
sails and furled them. It was the prettiest piece of sea¬ 
manship ever done in San Francisco and I received lots 
of compliments. The pilot felt very mean about it; he 
stayed down below till we got near the wharf, but said 
nothing. 

We had no trouble this time; the crew were paid off 
and left, only the ordinary seamen and boys stayed by. 
The stevedores under Commodore Allen took charge and 
the cargo was discharged in a short time. Mr. Sanford 
saved me a great deal of trouble. 


113 


San Francisco was filled with smart men, and in a year 
the place had greatly improved. Wharves had been built, 
and many fine stores had replaced the wooden shanties. 
But there were a great many bad men in the place and 
they had committed so many robberies and murders that 
it became necessary to have a Vigilance Committee to 
root them out. One Sunday at noon I saw three men 
taken from the jail and hanged somewhere near Market 
Street, before a great crowd. Many more were hanged 
and many sent out of the city and warned that if they 
returned they would be strung up. Exciting times then, 
but the city was saved, and it became very safe for men and 
women to go around the streets day or night. 

After discharging the cargo we took in some three hun¬ 
dred tons of ballast and seventy-five Chinese dead bodies 
in wooden boxes as freight. At that time captains re¬ 
ceived an eighth of money paid for passage, but dead 
bodies were considered freight. So one smart captain, 
to secure this passage money, loaded his cabin with corpses 
and called them passengers. This is a fact. He was 
paid seventy-five dollars for each one, and as he had 
some hundred dead Chinamen in his cabin, he pocketed 
a very nice little sum. 

After getting our ballast in, we hauled out into the 
stream to save wharfage, as we had to wait nearly a fort¬ 
night to get a crew. Sailors were very scarce and wages 
twenty-five dollars a month; but by the seventh of October 
we had enough men to handle the ship and we sailed for 
Shanghai. I had for passengers Mr. Harry Burdett who 
had been with me on the Samuel Russell , and came from 
New York with me, Stephen S. Smith, a lumber merchant 
in San Francisco, and a Mr. Keeler, who had once been 
a schoolmate of mine. In 1849, at the beginning of the 


114 


gold fever, he and three hundred others bought an old whal¬ 
ing bark and loaded her with lumber and stores of all kinds, 
and chose an old whaling Captain to take her to San Fran¬ 
cisco. He had not been to sea for some years and he 
thought this was a good chance to see the old places where 
he had been so many times. The first place he stopped 
at was Fayal, one of the Azores. Then he brought up at 
the Cape de Verde Islands; from there he went to Rio 
Janeiro and Montevideo; also stopped at the Falkland 
Islands to shoot geese and other game. After rounding 
the Horn he put into Talcahuano, and then went to Val¬ 
paraiso. Here the passengers kicked when he said the 
next place he would stop at was the Society Islands! It 
had been very pleasant during the first part of the voyage 
to see strange places, but so long a voyage began to be 
rather tedious. They had been out six months already, 
and wanted to get to their destination. So they turned 
him out and secured another Captain, but the old bark 
was a slow sailer and it was very nearly a year from the 
time they left the United States before they arrived at 
San Francisco. It was very amusing to hear the old 
Captain tell of his experience. He had been very suc¬ 
cessful after his arrival and made quite a little “pile,” 
and now was going home by the way of China on 
business. 

After getting to sea we had one good day’s work of 
two hundred and eighty miles, then calms and then three 
days’ good run, then many days of calm. On the tenth 
of November at two p.m. we made out a vessel dismasted, 
eight miles to windward. We hauled on a wind and beat 
up to her, and found her to be the American ship Auster- 
litz , a Boston ship in ballast, bound from San Francisco 
to China, Captain Day. She had been dismasted in a 


115 


cyclone four days previously. I lowered a boat and went 
on board to see what could be done. There was nothing 
but her foremast standing and her mizzen-mast with a 
cross-jack set. She had four hundred tons of stone ballast 
in her lower hold and she rolled terribly, with a quick, 
jerky roll, so that it was almost impossible to stand on 
your feet. She was a rotten old tub, not fit to be sent to 
sea. The Captain had his wife and a little girl of about 
three years old with him. The ship was a long way from 
China, and it being hurricane season, it was useless to 
try to save her, and after a talk with the Captain I told him 
he was justified in abandoning her and that I would take 
all hands on board my ship and land them in China. I 
then returned to my ship; shortened sail to her three 
topsails, and hove to as close to the Austerlitz as it was 
safe, and with two of my boats and one of the other ship’s, 
went to work to save some stores, canvas, paints, rope 
and other things easily transported. It was slow work, 
and it was twelve o’clock at night before we had the Cap¬ 
tain, wife and child safely on board. I told the Captain 
he must set fire to the ship as she would be dangerous 
for another vessel to run in to. The crew with their 
dunnage, and the Captain with all his personal property, 
being safely on board, the wind quite fresh, I filled away. 
Captain Day felt very badly to see the flames as they rose 
high in the air, consuming his home in which he had lived 
for a number of years. The worst of it was that at day¬ 
light the wind died away to a calm. If it had only done that 
six hours sooner, I could have saved a great deal more of 
provisions and other stores, but she was gone and that 
was the end of her. The Austerlitz had two good officers 
and fourteen good sailors, so that I was well manned even 
in case I met with a hurricane. Captain Day and Mr. 


116 


Burdett and a gang of men went to work and painted the 
between-decks and the upper works, and my ship looked 
finely to go in to Shanghai. 

On the fifteenth of November we were running with a 
fresh breeze from the east, when I noticed the weather 
ahead looked very squally and the sky very black and 
threatening. The barometer was falling and I felt sure 
I was running into a cyclone. My passenger, Mr. Smith, 
said he would like to see a typhoon. I told him I would 
show him all I wanted to see of one. At four p.m. the 
wind came in heavy gusts and I shortened sail to three 
close-reefed topsails, but still kept on my course; at six 
p.m. there was no doubt that I was running right into a 
hurricane. Mr. Smith said he had seen enough, and 
went below, drenched to the skin from a sea that toppled 
over the quarter deck. I knew that the hurricane was 
travelling west and that by heaving to I could get out of 
it, so I called all hands and took in fore and mizzen- 
topsails, and hove ship with her head to the eastward. 
It blew a furious gale all night and it was nearly twenty- 
four hours before the barometer had risen enough and the 
weather settled enough for me to make sail and proceed 
on my voyage. That I was wise in heaving to when I 
did was shown soon after I arrived in Shanghai, for the 
report came Trom there that the ship Witchcraft , Captain 
Rogers, had put into Hong Kong dismasted in a typhoon 
in the Pacific. Some time after I reached Hong Kong 
and saw Captain Rogers, who was an old friend of mine, 
I compared logs with him and found I was only twenty-five 
miles to the eastward of him when he was dismasted, 
and that if I had stood on for two hours longer, I might 
have been in the same fix. 

After the typhoon we had good weather and brisk winds 


117 


from northeast to east northeast, and I arrived in Shanghai 
on the twenty-fourth day of November, 1851. After lying 
there for some two weeks I was ordered to proceed to 
Whampoa, and on December eighth I left Shanghai and 
proceeded down the river, passed Gulataff Island, and 
in seventy-five hours anchored in Hong Kong. I had sailed 
a distance of eight hundred and forty-six miles, an average 
of eleven miles an hour; it was about as short a passage 
as was ever made. December fifteenth I left for Wham¬ 
poa to take in a cargo of teas and silks for New York. 

Nothing of moment happened that I remember, and 
we took in our cargo and on the ninth of January set sail 
for home. At nine a.m. on the tenth we passed the Great 
Ladrone Islands near Macao, and with fresh northeast 
monsoon and rainy weather sailed rapidly down the China 
Sea. Five days out we passed the Great Natuna. In ten 
days from Macao we passed out of Sunda Strait into the 
Indian Ocean. February nineteenth passed Cape of 
Good Hope, forty-four days from Macao. April second 
took a pilot and steamboat and at four p.m. hauled along¬ 
side the wharf, eighty-four days from Macao to New York. 

As soon as I could pay off the crew and settle the account 
of the voyage, I hurried off to South Danvers to see the 
girl I left behind me. I had a free passage in the Bay 
State , Captain Jewett, to Boston by the way of Fall River, 
and reached my destination and found all well. I could 
not stay long before I had to go back to my ship, but I 
made arrangements to be married on the eleventh of May. 
My ship was to leave about the twentieth for San Fran¬ 
cisco, so I had to hurry up, and on the eleventh of May, 
1852,1 was married in South Danvers to Miss Sarah Maria 
Tucker, by the Rev. Charles E. Dwinell of Salem. My 
brothers, Haskell and Edward, were the only ones of my 


118 


family who were present, but some two hundred of my 
wife’s friends were there. I was a little put out when my 
bride was about to go down stairs, for the minister then 
asked for the marriage license. I never was married before, 
and knew nothing about licenses and no one had informed 
me that it was necessary to have one; so I had to go and 
hunt up the town clerk. Fortunately he was at home 
and he quickly gave me the document which allowed me 
to be married, and the rest of it was soon over and we were 
made man and wife. I say it was soon over , but I had to 
stand about two hours, shaking hands and receiving the 
good wishes and congratulations of the company. The 
next day we left for Brooklyn to prepare for a wedding tour 
around the world. 

On the twenty-third of May the ship was ready for sea 
and was towed down the Bay with a large number of 
friends to see us off. The weather was fine and at two 
p.m. we cast off from the steamer, made sail and soon left 
the shore far astern. We had some twenty passengers on 
board, some four or five ladies among them. The next 
morning at breakfast my wife was the only one who joined 
me at that meal; all the rest were seasick. Now it is a 
great lottery for a shipmaster in taking a wife, and one 
who has never been on the water. A wife may be seasick 
all the voyage, or she may be very timid and afraid of a 
squall or a breeze of wind, which makes it very uncomfort¬ 
able for the husband as well as herself. My first fear, of 
her being seasick, was now put at rest, and I was soon to 
know that there was nothing to fear as far as being timid 
was concerned, for on the third day out we had a strong 
breeze from the southwest and I was carrying sail as much 
as the spars would allow, and the ship careened over so 
that the water rushed past the port holes of the cabin with 


SARAH MARIA LOW CAPTAIN CHARLES PORTER LOW 

at the age of nineteen years at the age of twenty-seven years 































































































































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119 


a great rush. About ten p.m. the ladies, being scared, went 
to my wife’s room and asked her if there was any danger. 
She replied, “I don’t know, my husband is on deck.” 
They received no other comfort from her, but when I heard 
of it, it was a great comfort to me. During the twenty- 
four hours that followed, the ship made three hundred 
and ninety-six miles, a big day’s run. After this the wind 
died down and we had pleasant weather, and nothing of 
interest happened until the seventh of June, when we came 
up with the clipper ship Gazelle , which left New York 
six days before us. The next day she was twelve miles 
astern of us, but we were now in the Doldrums, and for 
four days we were in company with the Gazelle. Some 
days she would get a breeze and come up to us and again 
we would run away from her. On the thirteenth of June 
we took the southeast trades and crossed the equator 
twenty-four days from New York, the Gazelle a long way 
astern. We had light trades from the equator to the 
latitude of 32° south. At noon of the first of July, after 
taking the sun for my latitude, a ship was sighted dead to 
windward, and I took the spy glass and went up to the 
mizzen-top, and after a good look at her I made up my 
mind it was the Flying Cloudy that left New York ten 
days before us. This ship on her first voyage made the 
passage to San Francisco in eighty-nine days, and was 
considered the fastest vessel ever built. She was com¬ 
manded by Captain Creesy, an old friend of mine, but I 
left San Francisco ten days after she did and beat her to 
China. She left China for New York about the same 
time as the N. B. Palmer and I beat her ten days on the 
passage, and now I had come up with her, beating her 
ten days thus far and only forty days out. I felt very 
proud of it. We were both running before the wind and 


120 


I was confident that I could outsail her, so I hauled up 
close to the wind with my studding-sails shaking and 
waited for her to come up with me; I wanted to be certain 
that it was the Flying Cloud; and sure enough, she ran 
alongside of me and Captain Creesy hailed me and wanted 
to know when I left New York. I replied, “Ten days 
after you.” He was so mad he would have nothing more 
to say. My ship was now at a standstill, and he was 
going ahead at full speed, and he ran ahead of me. Shortly 
after I filled away, the wind hauled ahead, and we had to 
haul in the studding-sails and brace sharp on a wind, and 
he got quite a start of me. I expected that on a wind he 
would beat me at least a mile an hour, but next day, just 
twenty-four hours after he passed me he was but twelve 
miles ahead. The weather now changed, and for eight 
days we had heavy gales with snow and hail. In latitude 
forty-eight south, at midnight, while making sail, a man 
by the name of Lemons shot the mate through the leg, 
and another man by the name of Dublin Jack knocked 
the second mate down with a handspike. I was just 
getting my boots on to go on deck, when the mate called 
to the steward to give him a musket. I jumped out of 
my room and enquired what the matter was, and the mate 
told me he was shot and that I must not go on deck. I 
took the musket in my hand, but he said it was not loaded. 
I replied that it did not matter, and bade him tell the stew¬ 
ard to call the carpenter and sailmaker and get a lantern 
and come on deck. The crew were hoisting up the mizzen- 
topsail, and as soon as the sail was set I ordered all hands 
to pass before the mate and myself, and told the mate to 
pick out the man who shot him. He said Dublin Jack 
was the one. I had him put in irons, and then the man 
Lemons came up and said he was the man who had shot 


121 


the mate. I started to raise the musket to knock him 
down, but as I had seen nothing of the row, and my blood 
was cool, I dropped it and asked him where the pistol was. 
He said he had thrown it overboard. I asked him if 
it was a revolver. He said “No, and that if it had been, 
neither I nor my mate would be alive now.” I only re¬ 
plied, “You are mighty cool about it,” and ordered the 
irons to be put on him and placed him in the after hatch. 
I took the irons off of Dublin Jack and told him to keep a 
good lookout for himself, as I should keep my eye on him. 
He replied, “All right, keep it on me.” And I meant to, 
for I knew he was a big rascal. I then sent the watch 
below. Fortunately we had two English surgeons on 
board, and I sent the mate down to have his leg looked at. 
As it was my watch on deck I stayed there till I saw the 
second mate with his arm in a sling and asked what the 
matter was. He said that when the mate was shot, 
Dublin Jack knocked him down with a handspike. I 
told him he should have let me know before I let Jack out 
of irons, and that would have saved a good deal of trouble. 
However, the men had gone below and I could do nothing 
before morning. Mr. Mowbray and Mr. Colby reported 
to me that the ball had gone through the left leg about a 
foot above the knee; it had not touched the bone and 
there was no danger of the wounds proving serious, but 
they said that the mate must keep quiet for some time. 

The next morning I called all hands to witness punish¬ 
ment. I had for a crew thirty able seamen, six ordinary 
and four boys, and placed as I was, with my mate laid up, 
my second and third mates incompetent, I felt that I must 
not show the least fear, but must show that I was able to 
take care of my ship. I had a rope stretched across the 
ship, and told the men that if any of them stepped across 


122 


it I would shoot them. I had my pistol ready, and Dublin 
Jack, for whom I was on the watch, stepped one leg over 
the rope. I went for him at once, caught him by the throat, 
carried him nearly fifty feet and landed him on the quarter 
deck, put the irons on him quick as a flash and lashed him 
to the mizzen-mast. Then I had Lemons taken out of 
the after hatch and triced up to the mizzen-rigging, and 
told the second mate to give him four dozen lashes with 
a piece of ratline stuff. He refused, saying he had never 
done such a thing. Neither had I, but it was no time to 
falter, and I told him to give me the rope, and I thrashed 
Lemons well, for I was angry at him and angry at the 
second mate for not supporting me. He was then taken 
down and put in the after hatch, and then Dublin Jack 
had his turn. He wanted to know what I was flogging 
him for. I told him for knocking the second mate down, 
and because I wanted to. After the thrashing was over 
I went forward and told the men if they were not satisfied 
with the morning’s work, to step out one by one and I 
would thrash the whole of them. Fortunately for me, 
none of them wanted to try it, but there is nothing like a 
show of strength. I then sent them to breakfast. After 
they had eaten their breakfast I turned all hands to and 
worked them till I found there was no more mischief in 
them, when I let them have their watch and watch, and 
everything was quiet. But I had a hard time of it. Mr. 
Haines, the mate, was laid up for eighteen days, and the 
second and third mates were of little account, so that I 
had to keep the deck almost constantly. The weather 
was fearful; storm after storm with high seas and snow, 
rain and hail, kept me on deck, and for eighteen days I 
did not sleep below, but tumbled down in the corner of 
the house on deck in my wet clothes, and got only a few 


123 


hours* sleep during the twenty-four. I only went to my 
room to wind my chronometers and take the time, and 
yet my wife in all these troublous times never gave a 
sign of fear, but was braver than any man in the cabin. 
Fifty-seven days out we passed Cape Horn, but the gales 
continued. On the twenty-sixth of July Mr. Haines 
returned to duty and I had a little rest, but for twelve 
days or a fortnight the stormy weather continued, the 
wind being ahead most of the time. We were twenty- 
eight days from Cape Horn when we sighted the Andes 
Mountains near Valparaiso. On the sixteenth of August 
we anchored in Valparaiso harbor in thirty-five fathoms 
of water. In stowing the cargo in New York the steve¬ 
dores had stowed the beef and bread and coal under many 
tons of cargo, so I put into Valparaiso to get beef, bread 
and coal, and also to send the two mutineers home to be 
tried for attempted murder on the high seas. 

We found there the steamer Brother Jonathan under 
command of Captain Baldwin, and my cousin, C. Adolphe 
Low, acting as Purser. They left the next day for San 
Francisco; it was very pleasant to meet them. After¬ 
wards they established a mercantile house in San Francisco 
under the firm of C. Adolphe Low & Co. and it became 
one of the largest and most respected firms of that city. 

As soon as possible I visited our Consul, Mr. Carroll, 
and informed him of the mutiny on board the ship, told 
him that the men were in irons and that I wanted them sent 
home to be tried for attempt to murder on the high seas. 
He said that he must come on board and take the affi¬ 
davits of the mate and myself, with a formal request from 
myself to have them taken out of the ship and sent home. 
He did this and then took the men on shore and placed 
them in jail. I was glad enough to be rid of them. 


124 


There seemed to be no end of trials for my wife and 
myself on this wedding tour. One afternoon we were 
invited to dine with the members of the house of Alsopp 
& Co., my agents. We had a pleasant time, and after 
dinner went to the Hotel to spend the night, but meeting 
a very unpleasant person there, we decided to return to 
the ship. It was not permitted to leave the shore after 
dark, but we found a boat at the jetty, with two young men 
in it, who offered to take us off. The first thing we did 
in getting into the boat was to step in about six inches of 
water. It was too late, however, to make a change, and 
we pulled off into the Bay. We soon found we could 
not see, for a dense fog had rolled in, and I told my wife 
we must get on board the first ship we came to, or we might 
be carried out to sea. After a while a huge vessel loomed 
up before us and I hailed her, told who I was, and said I 
would like shelter till morning. We had a hearty invita¬ 
tion to come on board, and though it was no trouble to 
me, I hardly knew how my wife was going to accomplish 
it. The ship was flying light in ballast, and her sides were 
twelve or fifteen feet out of water, with nothing but a 
Jacob’s ladder to go up. This is composed of two ropes 
running through pieces of board about four inches wide, 
placed fourteen inches apart; but my wife was equal to 
the occasion and went up ahead of me and we landed on 
the deck of an English ship. The Captain was very kind, 
took us into the cabin, which was very small, and brewed 
us some hot port wine negus and gave up his state room 
to us. We passed a very good night. In the morning it 
was clear, and going on deck I found my ship within hailing 
distance, and thanking the Captain for his kindness, we 
hailed the N. B. Palmer and the mate soon appeared 
with one of the quarter boats and took us on board. 


125 


During the night some twenty of my men had deserted 
the ship and I had to go on shore again to report to the 
Consul. He could not help me he said, for Valparaiso 
was noted for its hiding places, and it would be useless 
for me to try and find them. Well, I told him I must 
have more men for I could not go to sea so short-handed. 
He shrugged his shoulders and told me that Valparaiso 
was the worst place in the world to get a crew, for there 
were nothing but beach-combers and scoundrels to be 
had. However, he promised to do the best he could for 
me. Just as I w T as about to leave the office a fine-looking 
young man stepped up to me and asked if I wanted a 
crew. I told him I did, and he said he wanted to ship and 
he had seventeen men who would go with him; he would 
see them and let me know in the morning. As every one 
knew that there had been trouble on board my ship, and 
that the greater part of my crew had deserted, the idea 
of shipping eighteen men who were shipmates looked a 
little scary, but I could do nothing better and I believed 
the man who spoke to me was a good man if I was any 
judge of character. 

After leaving him, I thought I would go on board the 
United States sloop-of-war Raritan , Commodore McAuley, 
and tell him I wished him to take the mutineers to New 
York and not to let them have an easy time of it. He 
told me he would take good care of them, and in such a 
way that I was quite satisfied. 

By the way, he said, my wife and some other ladies 
had just left him and were in the w^ard room. He showed 
me the way, and sure enough, there was my wife with 
three ladies and the mate. They had persuaded the mate 
to take them on board, as none of them had ever seen a 
man-of-war. I joined them, and told my mate he could 


12o 


take the shore boat and that I would bring the ladies on 
board in the ship’s boat. When we were ready I had 
my boat brought to the gangway and got my wife and 
Mrs. Edwards in. There was quite a sea on, and it was 
difficult to keep the boat from going under the gangway. 
Just as we were way down, Mrs. Stout jumped and came 
into my arms, and at the same time the boat was lifted 
by the sea and came up directly under the lower steps and 
was swamped. I got hold of my wife and Mrs. Edwards 
got hold of me, and so I had the three ladies and myself 
to hold while the boat left me hanging to the iron which 
held the gangway up. The sailors on the man-of-war 
came at once to the rescue, and except for a good ducking, 
no one was hurt. The ladies went on board while the 
men were bailing the boat out, and afterwards got back 
to the ship in safety. 

The next day I went on shore and saw my man about 
the crew, but I saw none of the men. I told him if they 
were all on board at noon the next day, sober and willing, 
I would take them; otherwise, I would not. I left word 
with the consul to ship them, and then gathered up my 
stores and prepared to go to sea the next day. 

August twentieth the men came on board punctually at 
twelve o’clock, and a fine set of men they were; all but 
one were perfectly sober. I had a few words with the 
one who was rather the worse for liquor, and some of his 
shipmates took him forward while the man through whom 
I had engaged them apologized for him. We got under 
weigh and proceeded on our voyage, and a better set of 
men I never had under me. I tried very hard to keep 
them with me after our arrival in San Francisco, but they 
preferred to ship at big wages by the run to some near port, 
and work their way back at going wages. They were 


127 


making money and were saving it, and doing better than 
if they were working in the mines. 

We had pleasant weather and good trade winds and 
made good progress. August twenty-ninth spoke the 
ship Columbia of Salem, Mass., from New York one hun¬ 
dred and fifty days out, while we were only ninety-four 
sailing days. On the third of September we were boarded 
by Captain Parsons of the whale ship Rebecca Simms of 
New Bedford, thirty-five months out with fifteen hundred 
barrels of sperm oil. The rest of the voyage the winds 
were moderate. On the twenty-first of September we 
came up with and spoke the ship Gazelle. She had been 
run into by a Spanish ship off Cape Horn and her bow¬ 
sprit and all her head-gear had been carried away. It was 
about ninety-five days since we had left her just north of 
the equator in the Atlantic, and now again we picked her 
up in the North Pacific. On the thirtieth of September 
we made the Farallones, and at noon hauled alongside 
the wharf in San Francisco after a passage of one hundred 
and twenty-five sailing days and one hundred and thirty 
from New York. 

We lived on board the ship and enjoyed our stay in 
San Francisco very much, having considerable company. 
My cousin C. Adolphe Low, and Mr. Sanford and others 
dined with us often. Captain Chapman of the Senator 
(lying the other side of the wharf) was running to 
Sacramento, and when he came down from there he 
used to send on board a fresh salmon, which was very 
fine. 

After our cargo was mostly out my wife and I had a 
free passage to Sacramento, and we had a very pleasant 
time. A Mr. Bruce, an old friend, took us to drive to 
the Washington gold diggings about twenty miles from 


128 


Sacramento. It was very hot; there was no wind and 
the fine dust filled the air and lay in the road six feet deep. 
I never saw anything like it. When we got back we were 
a sight, covered from head to foot with fine dirt. Though 
the trip was pleasant and we would not have missed it on 
any account, we were glad to get to our home on board 
ship. 

It is customary for the crew and also for the officers, to 
call the Captain the “Old man,” no matter how young 
he is, and one morning w T hen I had gone on shore, the 
carpenter came aft and asked the steward if the “Old 
man” was on board. The steward said I had gone on 
shore. Then the carpenter asked, “ Is the‘Old woman* 
on board?” This my wife heard, and being only nine¬ 
teen years old, she rather resented it, though I had a hearty 
laugh when I heard of it. 

We had but three weeks in San Francisco and they 
passed very pleasantly. After having taken in three 
hundred and fifty tons of ballast we were ready for sea. 
We had some difficulty in securing a crew, but on the 
twenty-first day of October we left the Bay for Manila, 
Philippine Islands. The voyage across the Pacific was 
uneventful. Light winds most of the time, and we ar¬ 
rived in Manila the sixth of November, forty-five days 
from San Francisco. We were in Manila but nine days; 
took in some thousand bales of hemp and then sailed for 
Hong Kong. 

Manila was a very pleasant place to visit. Carriage 
hire was very cheap, and in the afternoons most of the 
foreign residents gathered at the Plaza to hear the Spanish 
band play, and drive around the shore of the bay. My¬ 
self and wife had our quarters on shore with Peele, Hubbell 
& Co. where we lived on the fat of the land and made 


129 


many acquaintances. We were sorry to leave, and yet 
were anxious to get to our journey’s end and be on our 
way home. We had a pleasant passage of six days to 
Hong Kong, arriving there at six p.m. of December twen¬ 
tieth. After remaining three or four days, I was ordered 
to Whampoa to load teas for New York. On arrival 
there I took my wife to Canton, where we had comfortable 
quarters at the house of Russell & Co. I had to go to 
Whampoa often, but my wife made many acquaintances 
and the time passed very pleasantly for her. As we 
looked for an increase in the family before a great many 
weeks, we were fortunate in securing a Miss Hemenway, 
who wished to return home. She proved herself a 
valuable nurse. 

We left Whampoa on the fifteenth of January, 1853, 
and on the seventeenth were two hundred and fifty-four 
miles from the coast of China and on the twenty-fifth 
passed through the Straits of Gasper, with fine breeze. 
At seven p.m. we had light airs from southwest and at 
eleven p.m. made the North Watches, a small island in 
the Java Sea. It is some two miles in diameter and 
rises to the height of two hundred feet, densely wooded 
from the top to the sea. Around it is a white, sandy beach, 
and in the bright moonlight it was a splendid sight to 
look at. I called my wife and the passengers to see it. 
We passed close to it at midnight and by two p.m. it was 
some eight miles to the north of us. I tacked ship to the 
west northwest. At four a.m. I was looking at the chart 
and had just pricked my position on it and got out of my 
chair to go on deck to tack ship, when the ship struck on 
Broussa’s shoal, while going at the rate of eight miles an 
hour. Immediately we laid all sails aback, started the 
water forward, and rolled all the salt provisions from 


130 


forward on to the quarter deck and ran a kedge anchor 
out astern. The wind freshened and she came off the 
reef, but we had to let go the hawser and kedge anchor, 
which we lost. On sounding the pumps we found the 
ship leaking seven inches an hour; we could also see that 
the fore-foot was gone, or at any rate it looked that way. 
The leak increasing, I resolved to put into Batavia, about 
ninety miles distant. I had never been there, but I had 
good charts, and at six p.m. I had nearly reached the place 
to anchor, when I was called to my wife. I hurriedly 
called to the mate and told him to bring the ship to an 
anchor at once. On going below I found my wife about 
to be confined, and shortly afterwards my first-born came 
into the world. It was a hard time for me, my ship being 
almost in a sinking condition, but thanks to our splendid 
nurse, I was able to go on shore and secure coolies to come 
off and keep the pumps going all night, and also to arrange 
for discharging the cargo. 

The next duty was to petition the Governor to be al¬ 
lowed to take my ship to the Dutch Navy Yard on the 
Island of Onrust, about five miles from Batavia, the only 
place where I could repair her to make her safe to perform 
the rest of the voyage. There were no docks to take her 
to, so we were obliged to heave her down. Batavia at 
that time was all Dutch, and no foreigner was permitted 
to do business there until after swearing allegiance to the 
Dutch Government. The house of Peele, Hubbell & Co. 
was supposed to be an American house, but Mr. Cramerus, 
who was the head, was a born Dutchman, though he acted 
as American Consul. He was a very fine man and did 
everything to help me. There were two Americans in 
the house, but they had sworn allegiance to the Dutch 
Government and were practically Dutchmen. There 


131 


were some English merchants, but they were all in the 
same boat, naturalized Dutchmen. 

At the end of a week I had to remove my wife on shore, 
and we took board with Mrs. Baines, who kept a very nice 
house some little distance from the city proper, where we 
were very comfortable; the rooms were very large and airy 
and we did not feel the heat at any time. My passengers 
were boarded at the hotel. 

After discharging the cargo and ballast, the ship was 
towed over to Onrust, to the Navy Yard. It was a very 
difficult job to heave her down so as to get the keel out of 
water, but on getting her down the first time, a piece 
of coral nearly two feet in diameter fell out of her wood 
ends. If this had come out at sea the ship would have 
gone down in less than an hour. Another providential 
escape for me. The Dutch Navy officers were very par¬ 
ticular, and would have the ship righted every night, 
which made a very long job of it, as it took three or four 
hours in the morning to heave her down. I lived in Ba¬ 
tavia, and had to leave at daylight to take the land breeze 
to carry me to Onrust where I took breakfast on shore, 
where the mates, steward and men were living. 

About a month after we arrived, Captain Darling and 
his wife invited us to spend a short time with them on 
their sugar plantation at Wanisippee, forty miles from 
Batavia. They were Boston people and very pleasant, 
and as work had progressed on the ship so that I could 
leave, and my wife and child were doing well, we accepted, 
and one fine morning a carriage, or stage, appeared at 
our boarding place with eight horses and driver and two 
outriders, all Javanese. The horses were not much larger 
than Shetland ponies, but they could run. Myself, wife, 
nurse and baby got on board, the driver snapped his 


132 


whip, the outriders ran on each side, whipping the horses 
to a run, and away we went, over a wide macadamized 
road as smooth as a floor, with tall trees on each side. 
It was exhilarating with the fresh morning air and the 
rapid run of the horses. The outriders, after getting 
them up to full speed jumped up behind, but at the least 
stoppage, jumped off and whipped them again. We ran 
these horses for eight miles, when they were taken out and 
eight fresh ones, all ready harnessed, were put in, and 
away we went again. It took five relays of eight horses 
to carry us the forty miles in about four hours. We then 
left the stage and were put on board of a flat-boat which 
carried us about four miles up to the landing at the plan¬ 
tation, where Captain Darling and his wife met us, and 
escorted us to their home, a large, roomy house with 
verandas around the whole building. At night we sat 
outside. The floor had holes in it, and the natives built 
fires underneath with wood of some peculiar smell and 
much smoke, to keep the mosquitoes off. For some 
time we were uneasy on account of the great number 
of lizards on the roof overhead, which very often dropped 
their tails off, but we soon got used to that. 

While we were there the natives were grinding the sugar 
cane, and we had a good view of sugar making. They 
can do nothing with the molasses, so have to run it into 
the river. A small part of it is made into Arrack, a species 
of rum, but the greater part goes to waste, as it costs too 
much for transportation to ship it. 

The Darlings lived well, and almost everything was 
cooked with the milk of the green cocoanut; the curries 
were especially delicious, and the fruit was plentiful. 
There were bananas of all sorts of flavors (seventy varieties 
in Java), but the mangosteen is the finest fruit in the world. 


133 


Next to that is the durian, but we could not get courage 
enough to eat it while we were in Java; the odor of it is 
very offensive; you can smell it half a mile off. Having 
once tasted it, you do not smell it. 

After a very pleasant visit we were taken back to our 
boarding house in the same way as we came. The ship, 
having been repaired, was towed back to Batavia to reload 
and then nearly the whole of my crew were taken with 
Java fever which is similar to yellow fever, and all had to 
be sent to the hospital. Sometime before we were ready 
for sea, Mr. Cramerus, the American consul, and the 
two Mr. Reeds very privately told me that they wished me 
to take home an American gentleman who was confined 
in prison and whom the Governor and his Council intended 
to hang. 

This Mr. Gibson was a New York adventurer who had 
read of the doings of Sir James Brooks, who had gone to 
Borneo and become Rajah of Sarawak and was supported 
by the English Government; did much for the natives and 
became a powerful Rajah, living in great state and be¬ 
coming very wealthy. Gibson bought a pilot boat in 
New York and started for the Java Sea. He reached a 
point in Sumatra, and though it was under the Dutch 
Government he landed and had an interview with one of 
the Rajahs, promising him the support of the whole navy 
of the United States if he would revolt against the Dutch 
and make him (Gibson) Rajah supreme. But the Dutch 
heard of it and caught the mate of Gibson’s schooner with 
a letter incriminating Gibson as he was going to the Rajah. 
Whereupon the schooner was seized and Captain Gibson 
and his mate were taken to Batavia and placed in prison 
for treason against the Dutch Government. According 
to all reports, Gibson, while in jail, had learned the Dutch 


134 


and Javanese languages, had been tried three times, plead 
his own cause, and had been acquitted by the Dutch courts, 
but the Governor and Council were satisfied of his guilt 
and were determined he should be hanged. I went to 
see him in prison and took quite a liking to him. He was 
a very able man, and did not worry at all, for all that 
his life was in danger. There was no American man-of- 
war anywhere near Java, and I made up my mind that if 
he could be got out of prison I would take him on board 
my ship and save him if I could. 

Two weeks or more before I was ready for sea, the 
American ship Sumatra , Captain Silver, put into Batavia 
in distress. The Captain called a survey upon her and 
she was found unseaworthy and it was recommended by 
the surveyors to sell her. She had a good crew, all well, 
and I shipped them to go to New York with me. My own 
men were dying in the hospital and none of them were 
likely to get well enough to be taken on board. As soon 
as we were ready, arrangements were made to get Gibson 
out of prison. Two Englishmen who kept a ship- 
chandler’s store promised to have him at the end of the 
jetty at nine p.m. of the evening of the twenty-fifth of 
April, the night I was going to sail. I had my wife and 
all our traps on board, and we had been just three months 
in Batavia when everything was ready for a start. I sent 
my mate with the ship’s boat on shore, and soon she 
came back with Gibson on board. The Dutch frigate, a 
guard ship, lay a very short distance from us, and we had 
hardly got him on board when she sent a boat to us. We 
supposed they were after the prisoner and we hustled him 
under the mate’s room in a hurry. But it was only a few 
officers who had come to say good bye to me, for I had seen 
the Captain often on shore and we were good friends. 


135 


They left us after a short stay, and at three a.m. we got 
under weigh to take advantage of the land breeze which 
was a fair wind, out of the harbor. As soon as the anchor 
was aweigh I fired a salute of eleven guns to the Dutch 
frigate; they called their crew and returned the salute. 
Our guns were then run in and we paid no more attention 
to the frigate or to the shore; but Mr. Gibson, on reaching 
New York, wrote a book in 'which he stated that the 
sailors stood by the guns, ready to fight any vessel that 
should attempt to recapture him. His rescue came near 
costing the ship dear. On discharging the cargo to have 
the ship repaired, we had to pay duties, which were to be 
returned when it was taken on board again. This duty 
the Government refused to refund, as the ship had taken 
away a State prisoner; and it was some months before 
the owners of the ship recovered it. Besides, I was also 
forbidden to ever visit the Island of Java—the ship might 
go to Batavia, but not under my command. 

Many of my friends wanted me to register my son as 
born in Batavia, and make him a Dutchman, as he would 
have great privileges when he grew up; but I told them 
he was born under the American flag, and was and always 
would be, an American citizen. 

We had a tedious time beating out through Sunda 
Straits, and for thirteen days had light winds and calms. 
On the fourth of May we exchanged signals with the 
Samuel Russell , my old ship, and for two days we were in 
company, with light winds. We parted with one another 
by my going to the west and the Russell to the south. 
Quite a large number of my crew were down with the 
Java fever, but I lost only one man, Hamilton Rea, the 
sailmaker, who died on the thirtieth of May. I was 
especially sorry to lose him as he had been sailmaker on 


136 


board the Horatio when I made my first voyage; he was 
a regular old salt, always at work, and he took as much 
interest in the ship and its passage as any one. The rest 
of the crew gradually were restored to health, and when 
we passed Cape of Good Hope all were well. We had a 
pleasant passage from the Cape and took a pilot off Barne- 
gat the twenty-fifth of July, 1853, after being absent 
fourteen months and two days, a good, long wedding tour. 

After discharging the ship I went with my wife and 
Charley to South Danvers, where we were joyfully re¬ 
ceived by my wife’s mother and her other relations and 
friends, and our baby boy pronounced the finest and 
handsomest baby ever born. We had a very pleasant 
time, but my good ship must be off again, and after a little 
over two months on shore, I persuaded my wife to join 
me in another voyage around the world. Also I had the 
owners’ permission to take her mother with us. 

On September twenty-seventh we left New York with 
a full cargo and a few passengers for San Francisco. 
We had variable winds and calms and were thirty-two 
days out before crossing the equator, the longest passage 
I had ever had; from there we had a fair passage, passing 
through the straits of Le Maire at midnight, and on the 
sixtieth day out passing Cape Horn. We saw many ice¬ 
bergs, some of them very beautiful in the sunlight. For 
fifteen days we had nothing but storm with snow and hail 
and cold weather. My wife and her mother stood the 
discomfort wonderfully well; but we were glad enough to 
reach San Francisco after a passage of one hundred and 
twenty-one days, arriving on January twenty-sixth, 1854. 

My cousin, C. Adolphe Low, met us as we came to the 
wharf, and it was very pleasant to see many friends; it 
was like getting home. We lived on board ship and had 


137 


daily visitors and some one to dine with us. The cargo 
was hurried out by stevedore Allen and in eighteen days 
we were ready for sea. I had much difficulty in securing 
a crew; in fact I could not get a crew for China, so I had 
to ship them by the run to Honolulu and trust to finding 
men there to take me to China. 

We left San Francisco on February thirteenth and took 
a pilot off Honolulu February twenty-fourth, ten days 
from San Francisco, a very short passage, averaging over 
two hundred miles a day. After taking the pilot we went 
into the harbor and hauled alongside the wharf. Upon 
inquiry I found it was impossible to get a crew of white 
men, or even Kanakas, or Sandwich Islanders, as in the 
case of the Samuel Russell. They wanted very high wages 
and I had to enter into heavy bonds to return them to the 
Islands. I was in a quandary, when fortunately a New 
Bedford man offered to load the ship for New York with 
whale oil. This gave the ship a very fair freight, and he 
promised to secure a crew for me from among the whalers. 
I concluded to take his offer. 

When at Honolulu in the Samuel Russell I had invited 
King Kamahameha and his princes to dine with me, so 
now I invited them again, but I found that if they accepted, 
my wife and her mother could not join us at dinner, which 
disappointed them very much. When my visitors arrived 
at the ship I received the King at the gangway, and he 
recognized me at once and seemed very glad to see me, 
although it was three years since I had met him before. 
We had a good dinner and the King and his suite were very 
much pleased with the entertainment and delighted with 
the ship, which he pronounced the finest one that ever 
came into Honolulu. Before they left I introduced them 
to my wife and her mother, and Mrs. Low invited the 


138 


Queen and her ladies to dine with her the next day. The 
King accepted the invitation and promised her that they 
would come. Of course I was shut out, and I gave the 
ship up to the ladies. I forget how many made their 
appearance, but they also enjoyed their visit. Before 
the dinner was over, the King and two or three of his 
ministers came on board and had liquid refreshments served 
on the quarter deck. 

After this was over I had to go to Lahaina, some dis¬ 
tance from Honolulu, where a great many whale ships 
anchored in preference to Honolulu. Father Damon, 
seaman’s chaplain and missionary, invited my wife and 
mother to pay a visit on shore during my absence. They 
accepted, and after seeing them settled, I took passage in 
a small trading schooner for Lahaina. I found on arrival 
there a number of ships and I secured quite a large quan- 
ity of oil. Captain Dubois got under weigh in his 
barque as soon as I was ready, and took me on board to 
go back to Honolulu. On the way up he gave me a thrill¬ 
ing account of having been attacked by a whale in the 
South Pacific and his ship sunk by it, so that he and his 
crew had a narrow escape. They took to their boats and 
were picked up by Captain Edwards of the ship Washing¬ 
ton of New Bedford. It is so long ago now that I have 
forgotten the details. 

We were nearly two months completing our cargo and 
on the twenty-second of April we were ready for sea. We 
had a cabinful of passengers, Mr. Marshall and wife, 
Mr. Everett and wife, Mrs. Angel and son (wife of the 
U. S. Consul), Mr. Saunders, who was nearly dead of 
consumption and anxious to get home and see his mother 
before he died, Captain Snow, an old whaler, and Mr. and 
Mrs. Whittlesy, missionaries, also my wife and her mother 


139 


and my son Charles, and some others whom I have for¬ 
gotten, but they were all first class and full of fun. 

We left Honolulu with moderate breezes on April twenty- 
third, had good winds, and crossed the line in six days; 
passed Cape Horn in thirty-eight days with skysails and 
royal studding-sails set. In fifty-seven days we crossed 
the line in the Atlantic, a splendid passage. We were 
ten days ahead of the famous voyage of the Sovereign 
of the Seas , but we had a long passage of twenty-five days 
from the line, being becalmed for many days. 

Mr. Saunders’ will had kept him alive so far, as we 
hoped to reach his home, but on the Fourth of July he 
enquired of his servant if there was any wind. The man 
told him, “No, and no sign of any,” and he turned over 
and died. We had made preparations to celebrate the day, 
but we gave them up. The voyage up to this time was 
the most pleasant of any I had ever made; the passengers 
had some amusement every day or evening, and getting 
along so fast put every one in good humor. 

After we took a pilot, just as we were going by Sandy 
Hook, my second son was born, on the fourteenth day of 
July, 1854. It was exciting and rather unfortunate to 
have it occur so near New York, but everything went all 
right. At quarantine the Doctor came on board and 
pronounced my wife doing well. It was nearly seven p.m. 
when we hauled alongside the wharf, and we had to remain 
on board all night. The next day we removed my wife 
to the home of my parents, 40 Concord Street, Brooklyn. 
I left the ship and gave Mr. Frisbee command, as I in¬ 
tended staying at home for some time. 

After my wife was able to travel, we went to South 
Danvers, where I purchased a large house on the corner 
of Foster and Washington streets. It had been built by 


140 


a Colonel Lowe. It was beautifully situated on a knoll, 
some fifteen feet above the street and a block below 
where George Peabody was born. We had a pleasant 
time setting out trees and plants and beautifying the 
grounds. 

In the middle of August, 1855, I was called to take 
charge again of the N. B. Palmer , then loading for China, 
and on the twenty-eighth I bade farewell to home and 
proceeded to sea. For five days we had a good run and I 
anticipated a short run to the equator, but afterwards we 
had light winds and calms and did not cross the line till 
the thirty-first day out. We passed the longitude of Cape 
of Good Hope in 40° south, fifty-seven days from New York. 
From there we had varying winds to Sandalwood Island, 
then light airs and calms for twenty days, and we took a 
pilot on the twenty-fourth of December, one hundred and 
eighteen days to Hong Kong, the longest passage I ever 
made. The twelfth of January, 1856 we proceeded to 
Shanghai and made a good passage against the monsoon 
in eleven days, heavily laden with rice. After a stay of 
six weeks we were loaded with tea and silks and on March 
the twelfth got under weigh and proceeded down the river. 
We had very light winds and were twenty-five days getting 
to Anjer and sixty days to the Cape of Good Hope. We 
stopped at St. Helena for flour and provisions, and ar¬ 
rived in New York on the twenty-eighth of June, 1856, in 
one hundred and eight days from Shanghai. 

As my wife had been on shore for some time and our 
two boys were old enough to leave with their grandmother, 
my wife consented to go to sea with me again, and on the 
fourth of August, 1856, we sailed in the N. B. Palmer for 
China. We had a few pleasant passengers, one a Mrs. 
Hunter whose husband was partner in Russell & Co. at 


141 


Canton. She was a Southern lady and most agreeable, 
and my wife enjoyed her being on board, and the voyage, 
which was made tedious by light winds, was much short¬ 
ened by her company. We were thirty-five days to the 
equator and had light winds to 30° south latitude, where 
we had a fine run past the Cape of Good Hope and an¬ 
other fine run from 6° east in latitude 40° south to 7° 
south latitude and 103° east, averaging three hundred and 
thirty-five miles a day for four days, and two hundred and 
eighty-eight miles a day for twelve days. It is very seldom 
that one can get the wind to make such a run and we made 
a fair passage to Anjer, being eighty days from New York. 
We took the passage through the Java Sea and through 
the Celebes Sea into the Pacific Ocean. Two days after 
passing Cape Donda, a long way from land, we picked up 
a canoe with a Malay in it who was nearly starved. I 
took him on board and carried him to Hong Kong. I 
could not find out anything about him for he could not 
speak any language that I was acquainted with. 

Light winds continued till we took the northeast mon¬ 
soon in latitude 76° north, longitude 126° 50" east. In 
three days we passed Pedro Blanco and anchored in 
Hong Kong at six a.m., one hundred and eighteen days 
from New York. We lay at anchor from November 
thirtieth, 1856, till February nineteenth, 1857, when we 
started for Siam for a load of rice. There being a famine 
in China, every available ship was sent to different places 
for rice. After a passage of twelve days we came to anchor 
off the bar at Siam, about four miles from land. I had 
my long boat rigged as a yawl with two leg sails, and 
proceeded up the river Menam forty miles from the 
anchorage, to Bangkok, the capital, where I found a Mr. 
Parker to whom I consigned the ship. Here I met Mr. 


142 


and Mrs. Telford and they invited me to bring my wife 
up and stay with them till the ship was loaded. I accepted 
their invitation and then returned to the ship, enjoying 
much the very pleasant sail. I went to Bangkok again 
the next day with my wife, taking the second mate 
and some sailors to pull the boat in case the wind 
gave out, but there was a breeze and we made good 
time, and after giving the men a good feed, we sent them 
back to the ship. I expected to be three or four weeks 
in loading. 

Bangkok is full of temples filled with idols of every 
size. One reclines on its back; is some fifty feet long 
and fifty feet high and all covered with gold; another 
immense one is in a sitting posture, and some temples 
contain one or two hundred idols around the room. The 
river on both sides of Bangkok is lined with houses built 
on large rafts of bamboo, anchored there. When a family 
gets tired of one place they up anchor and float down or up 
the river to a new place. Thunder storms occur here 
almost every night with very vivid lightning, heavy thunder 
and torrents of rain. The days are very pleasant, but not 
hot. My wife had an invitation to attend a pleasant party 
given by the Queen on her birthday, to which all the 
missionary ladies went. At the close of the dinner the 
Queen presented each lady with a silver coin called a 
tical, value about fifty cents. The first King, for there 
were two, did not speak English, and he kept aloof from 
foreigners, but the second King was an educated man 
and was very fond of astronomy and navigation, and was 
very progressive. He was also a great beggar and wanted 
everything he saw that pleased him. He visited my ship 
and was much pleased with her. I was glad I was not 
on board at the time, for the mate had hard work to 


143 


convince him that two very handsome nine-pounder guns 
were ship’s property and not to be given away. He 
afterwards tried very hard to get them from me. 

Once in a while, my wife accompanied me down to the 
ship when my boat came up for orders, and one time we 
had a rather disagreeable trip, for in going back to the 
city we took passage in a small schooner called the Red 
Wing . She was not much larger than my long boat 
and carried rice and sapan-wood to the ship. We started 
off very well, but on the bar the schooner struck, and 
there we were and had to stay till the tide rose. It was 
very hot and we retreated to the hold to keep cool. We 
were too far from the ship for any one there to see and 
help us and the hold was not a pleasant place to stay in, 
as there were any quantity of centipedes and scorpions 
which came out of the sapan-wood. We were soon de¬ 
livered though, by the tide’s rising and we went on our 
way rejoicing and arrived safely at Bangkok. 

It was here that my wife and I learned to love the durian. 
We were in Java three months, the home of this delicious 
fruit, but we could not then be persuaded to touch it, 
for the smell of it is very offensive. But Mr. and Mrs. 
Telford insisted that if we once tasted of it we should not 
notice the smell again, and we did taste and were sorry 
we had lost so many opportunities of enjoying it. It is 
a large fruit with a husk one-half to one inch thick; in¬ 
side there are some dozen seeds the size of a dollar, and 
a thick coating around them of a substance like a custard 
which is eaten with a spoon. I cannot describe it, but it 
tastes like everything that is good mixed together. They 
told us in Java that it was very heating, and the natives, 
when they eat of it, sit with their feet in the water, but we 
were never troubled by it. The mangusteen is another 


144 


most delicious fruit and common in Java and Siam. I 
cannot describe that either. 

The King had a very large number of elephants, among 
them two white elephants which were held sacred. You 
could not, however, properly call them white for they 
were more of a dirty cream color. The keepers took the 
whole lot of them down to the river every morning to bathe, 
and it was very amusing to see their evident enjoyment 
of it. 

There are large dealings here in teak-wood which is 
very rare, and I bought quite a quantity for a deck load. 
Sapan-wood also we purchased for dunnage, lining the 
ship inside with it to keep the rice from the ship’s side. 
We loaded as rapidly as was possible with the ship so far 
away (for everything had to be transported in lighters), 
but on the thirtieth of March we had twenty-one thousand 
pecals of rice on board which gave us about fourteen 
hundred tons, besides teak-wood and sapan-wood, which 
put us down very deep in the water. 

We bade good-bye to our hosts as well as to all the 
missionaries, and started down the river, and at nine a.m., 
March thirty-first we got under weigh for Hong Kong. 
We had light winds all the way and were twenty-one days 
to Hong Kong, averaging only eighty miles a day. Here 
we discharged our cargo and on the fourteenth of May 
set sail on our second voyage to Siam. As the ship was 
making money for the owners and the voyage was pleasant, 
my wife and I were well contented. The winds were very 
light and a long passage of eighteen days was the result. 
We anchored off the Menam bar on the first of June, 1857. 
The Portsmouth , American man-of-war, was anchored 
near us. She was commanded by Captain Foote, who 
distinguished himself at the battle of the Barrier Forts 


145 


near Canton, and afterwards in our civil war in many 
fights on the Mississippi River and at New Orleans. 
We made his acquaintance in China and liked him very 
much. 

As soon as the ship was anchored I left for Bangkok to 
report, and meeting Mr. and Mrs. Telford received another 
kind invitation to stay with them during the ship’s load¬ 
ing. I accepted for myself and wife and later we started 
in the long boat for the city. We were becalmed in the 
river and were making slow progress, when a steamer 
flying the Siamese flag hove in sight, bound up. It came 
close to us and stopped, and Captain Foote hailed me and 
asked us to come on board. The King and second King 
were on board and the boat belonged to the Kings, a very 
pretty vessel called The Royal Seat of the Siamese Forces , 
a pretty long name. The Kings had been the guests of 
Captain Foote on board the Portsmouth. We were glad 
to go on board and to be very graciously received by their 
Majesties. We were soon landed in Bangkok and settled 
in the old missionary home. We were fortunate to have 
such a good home, for it was very tedious work getting a 
cargo, and we lay there two months before we were loaded. 
We took in the usual load of sapan-wood for dunnage and 
teak-wood for a deck load, and some fourteen hundred 
tons of rice. About two weeks before we were ready for 
sea I was taken sick with dysentery of the worst kind, and 
in a week I was reduced from one hundred and eighty 
pounds to one hundred and twenty. I recovered some¬ 
what and was able to take charge of my ship, leaving Siam 
on the thirtieth of July and arriving in Hong Kong the 
tenth of August, where I had a relapse and was danger¬ 
ously sick, so sick indeed that the doctor in Hong Kong 
did not expect me to live and sent me over to Macao, 


146 


forty miles to the westward. There Dr. Caine, an English 
doctor, attended me and he I think never expected me to 
get well. All this time my wife attended me night and 
day, and I am sure that by her constant care and good 
nursing my life was saved; the Doctor said as much. 

All at once the crisis was passed and I progressed 
wonderfully towards health and strength. I was in the 
summer house of Russell & Co., a fine building, with 
plenty of room, and there I had every attention that could 
possibly be given to me. Captain Steele of the Contest 
was there and many others who were very kind to me. 
As soon as I received strength to move about we had a 
very pleasant time. Macao is a Portuguese city and 
beautifully situated on the Bay; it has an inside harbor 
that is well protected from all winds, but large vessels 
cannot enter it. Before Hong Kong became an English 
port all ships stopped at Macao and waited for orders be¬ 
fore going up the river to Canton. We stayed in Macao 
till I was quite well, and as we were not to leave for home 
for two months I was better off away from the ship. 

But the time soon passed and I joined the ship, and on 
the fifth of October we left for home, and glad enough we 
were. I was not very strong, though able to take care 
of the ship, but the voyage down the China Sea was very 
trying, with light airs and baffling winds, so that we were 
thirty days going to Anjer. When we left there I had lost 
some of the flesh and strength which I had gained, and 
was very poorly. However, with the fresh ocean winds 
and bracing weather I soon gained, and I continued to 
gain all the way home. 

The passage was pleasant, with nothing occurring to 
remember, except that it was a short one of seventy days 
from Anjer to New York. We took a pilot at four a.m. 


147 


of the thirteenth of January, 1858, and at seven p.m. 
anchored inside the bar. At daylight we took a steam tug 
for New York, after an absence of seventeen months and 
seventeen days. My friends thought I looked like a very 
sick man and advised me to stay at home for a year and 
recruit. I found that my weight was thirty pounds less 
than my average weight of one hundred and eighty, so 
my brothers gave the command to Mr. Hyam, the mate, 
a very able man, who had been my chief officer for two 
years, and I went to South Danvers to my home there, 
where I found all well. Our two sons, Charley and Josiah 
had been well cared for by their grandmother and had 
grown to be good-sized boys. I gained strength daily, 
but not much flesh. 

On the ninth of March my wife was delivered of twins, 
a boy and a girl. There was a terrible snow storm and 
I had to foot it a mile through two feet of snow to get the 
Doctor. We named them Francis and Frances, and they 
were fine children. In July we started with the whole 
family for Claremont, New Hampshire, and took board 
in the town. It was very lovely there but the food could 
have been better (and it might have been worse). I had 
an unquenchable thirst for milk. I dare not say how 
much I drank in the twenty-four hours, but it was certainly 
from one to two gallons if not more. At any rate I gained 
in flesh and strength rapidly; so did Mrs. Low and the 
children, and after a month or two we returned to our 
home in South Danvers where we remained the rest of 
the year until I began to want to go to sea again. Of 
course I had got to go alone for my wife could not go 
and leave the children. 

A. A. Low & Bros, wrote me in January that the Jacob 
Bell was nearly ready for sea and that I could take com- 


148 


mand of her. She was a fine ship, of the same size as the 
N. B. Palmer , but she did not have as fine accommoda¬ 
tions. Instead of there being a house on deck, half of it 
was below the poop deck and half above it. The state¬ 
rooms were very comfortable and my room was in the 
after part, with a gangway which opened out close to 
the man at the wheel and also opened out on the main 
deck. The quarter-deck was, of course, small, about 
three feet wide on each side of the house, and some twelve 
feet abaft. The top of the cabin gave good room to 
walk on, and altogether it was very comfortable. I had 
a New Bedford man as mate and Joseph Steele as second 
mate. The mate proved perfectly worthless on a merchant 
ship, though he may have been a good whaler, for as such 
he had been brought up. I discharged him in Hong Kong 
as soon as I arrived and promoted Mr. Steele. 

On leaving New York we had fresh gales from south 
and southwest and unfavorable winds till we crossed the 
latitude of 30° north. We crossed the line in twenty- 
seven days from New York. On the twenty-second day 
of February we fired a salute in memory of Washington’s 
birthday. A seaman, William Dexter, was badly injured 
by the guns going off while he was ramming home a cart¬ 
ridge. I sewed the thumb together, which was nearly off 
the hand, and he recovered the use of it before the end of 
the voyage, a tribute to my skill as a surgeon. Nothing 
occurred to make the voyage of interest. We arrived at 
Anjer in eighty-three days from New York and from 
there to Hong Kong had a most tedious time, nothing but 
light winds and calms, and we were thirty-one days from 
Anjer, making the voyage one hundred and fourteen days. 
We lay in Hong Kong from May thirteenth to June eighth, 
when we set sail for Foochow. We were three days 


149 


to the White Dogs off the River Min, and it took us seven 
days to reach Pagoda Anchorage, our destination. Foo¬ 
chow is some distance from the anchorage (some fourteen 
miles), about the same as from Whampoa to Canton, 
and the teas are brought down to the ship in the same way, 
by chop-boats carrying from eight hundred to one thou¬ 
sand chests of tea. 

There were a number of American ships in the river 
when we arrived, and as I was the oldest Captain in the 
China trade I was made Commodore of the Fleet. The 
Commodore’s duty was to fire a gun at eight a.m. and at 
sundown, at the same time hoisting the ensign at the peak 
and the house flag at the main. All other American ships 
had to follow the Commodore’s example. It was his 
duty also, when an American ship made its appearance 
down the river, to signal the fleet to send a boat’s crew 
on board to help moor ship and furl her sails when she 
came near. The same was done when one of the number 
got under weigh to leave port. It was a very good scheme 
and made easy work for the crew coming in or going out. 
We had some sport annoying the Captain of an English 
brig-of-war which lay very near to us. Of course when a 
man-of-war was in port she acted as Commodore for the 
ships under her flag, and my mate took great pleasure in 
watching when this ship would fire the eight o’clock gun 
and in firing his almost at the same second. The English 
Captain did not like it at all, but he was a pompous, uncivil 
chap whom no one liked, and we were glad we got the 
better of him. One night a typhoon threatened, and at 
one a.m. we called all hands and sent down skysail, royal 
and topgallant yards and housed the topgallant masts. 
At daylight it was blowing heavily and my ship was lying 
comfortably, all snug. The man-of-war started in and 


150 


made all things snug in a short time, but the Captain 
never could get over wondering how the Yankee captain 
had done such a job in the darkness of night. 

We lay at the Pagoda Anchorage two months and eight 
days, and even after all that time we were unable to get a 
full cargo for New York, and much to my disappointment, 
we were ordered to sail for Whampoa to finish our cargo 
for home. This being the height of the typhoon season 
I did not like cruising in Chinese waters, but there was no 
getting out of it. 

Upon leaving, a young man named Stephen Massett 
wished me to take him to New York as a passenger. 
He was poor and could only pay his passage by giving me 
an upright piano, which I took in the after cabin. He was 
the son of Stephen Massett, an actor and humorist of some 
note and he inherited his father’s musical and humorous 
ability and we had many a pleasant time on the voyage 
home. We left our anchorage on the twenty-fourth of 
August, 1859, and on the third day out we were running 
into a typhoon. A fresh gale was increasing, with the 
barometer falling. I sent the royal yards on deck and 
close-reefed the topsails, furled mainsail, jib and foresail, 
and ran away from the centre of the typhoon by steering 
according to the law of storms. I then hove to and let 
the storm pass us to the northward. 

On the thirty-first of August we took a pilot and at three 
p.m. anchored in Hong Kong, seven days from Foochow. 
We at once proceeded to Whampoa to finish our lading, 
but instead of being able to do so immediately, we had to 
wait six weeks before we finished loading, and it was on 
the thirteenth of October when we passed the Great 
Ladrone Islands bound home. It was early for the 
northeast monsoon, so we had light and baffling winds 


151 


down the China Sea and were twenty-seven days to Anjer. 
We had a fair run to Cape of Good Hope, passing it fifteen 
miles to the south, in sixty-six days from China. We had 
the usual run to New York and took a pilot one hundred 
and two days from Macao. This concluded my twenty- 
second voyage and sixteenth voyage as Captain. 

I found the family all well and my oldest boys well 
grown, and my old ship the N. B. Palmer loading for 
China, so I shifted from the Jacob Bell and took command 
of the N. B. Palmer , and after a short stay at my home 
in South Danvers, made arrangements to take my wife and 
my sons Charles and Josiah with me. My cousin, Miss 
Ellen Porter, was also to go with us, making quite a 
family party. We left Frank and Fannie with Mrs. 
Tucker, and on February fifth, a little over a month from 
the time I arrived home, I was again at sea, bound to 
China. 

There was very little worth remembering of this voyage 
out. Light winds prevailed and we were twenty-four days 
to the equator, and were directly on the line at noon the 
twenty-fourth day. We had the usual heavy seas and 
strong winds running down the easting in the Indian 
Ocean, and made a fair passage of eighty-two days to 
Anjer. We lay there all night and next day, taking in 
water and fresh provisions, turtles, chickens and yams, 
and enjoyed a short time on shore. We had light winds 
all the way up the China Sea, and on the fourth of June, 
just one hundred days from New York, we anchored 
in Hong Kong. We had been there fifteen days when I 
was ordered to Shanghai. We made the passage in eight 
days, coming to anchor on the second of July in that port. 
As there was no cargo to be had there we loaded up with 
bean cake for Amoy. 


152 


Before leaving New York I swapped the upright piano 
I received from Massett for a splendid square one made 
by Stohls, which he let me have for three hundred dollars 
and the upright. It was one of his best, worth seven 
hundred dollars. He wished me to take it to China as 
an advertisement. My wife enjoyed it exceedingly, and 
it was a great source of pleasure when we had company 
at the different places we visited, and also at sea. I did 
not, however, have the pleasure of selling any pianos for 
the maker. 

We had a short run of three days and anchored in Amoy 
on August first, 1860, and were consigned to Tait & Co. 
Mr. Tait, the senior member of the firm, was a rough old 
Scotchman and rather eccentric, but a jolly fellow and we 
saw a good deal of him on shore and on board the ship. 
There were quite a number of young men in Amoy, and 
my cousin had numerous visitors, for young ladies were 
scarce in that community. 

One day we were invited to dine at Tait & Co.’s. It is 
needless to add that we had a fine dinner, for the foreign 
merchants in all of China lived like princes, and there is 
no country where the variety of foods is greater or better 
than in China. One course Mr. Tait pronounced chicken- 
pie. My wife and cousin thought it excellent, but after 
dinner was over we found it was made of frog’s legs. 
Neither of us had ever tasted them before, but afterwards 
we had them often on board ship. 

The harbor of Amoy was a very safe one, land locked, 
and more like a river, for on one side was the main land, 
and some two miles opposite was an island running parallel, 
named Kulang-seu. The American Consul and some 
missionaries lived there, but the merchants were on the 
main land. Some three or four miles towards the sea 


153 


there was a fine, hard, sandy beach where the foreigners 
went to ride on the Amoy ponies in the afternoons. Cap¬ 
tain Wood, captain of a ship near us, invited us one day 
to go down there and have a ride. We went in our Sam¬ 
pan and took my steward with a lunch while Captain 
Wood found the horses and had them sent down there. 
Although I had never ridden horseback I got along very 
well and rather enjoyed it. We went several times, but 
one day I could get no pony, so I called at Tait & Co.’s 
and Mr. Hancock offered me his and said he would send 
it down and have it ready for me. As usual we went at 
about three o’clock in the afternoon and found the horses 
ready. Captain Wood and the ladies started off in good 
style and I mounted in perfect confidence, but my pony 
refused to go ahead and instead went sideways towards 
a low mud fort, just above the beach, and squeezed me 
against the side of it. All at once he made a bolt and 
went off on the run, but a little rivulet of water was running 
across the beach, and just as he got to it he stopped very 
suddenly. I, however, kept going until I struck the sand, 
which luckily for me was very soft. I came to the con¬ 
clusion that I would not ride any more and I took the 
horse, which was standing perfectly still, and went back 
to my boat, and told the steward to take him and go after 
the party and tell them I would not ride any more. I 
believe that was the last time I ever rode horseback. I 
found afterwards that the pony had not been ridden for 
over two months. 

We were in Amoy for two months and during that time 
the ship was visited daily by many young men, and though 
my cousin had been in Hong Kong and Shanghai without 
meeting any one who pleased her, it looked very much as 
though Amoy would furnish the right man. There were 


154 


two who were very attentive—a Mr. Richardson and a 
Mr. Hancock—and it was very doubtful which was the 
favored one. 

But the time of our leaving was at hand. We were 
loaded with tea for New York, and I was busy dropping 
the ship through the fleet, and did not come to anchor till 
near eleven p.m. Then I was told that Mr. Richardson 
had proposed and had been accepted. He wished my 
cousin to stay and be married then, but I would not 
consent. I told him she must go home first; and they 
parted. We left for New York the next day. 

Nothing particular happened on our voyage home, 
which we made in one hundred and eight days from Amoy, 
arriving in New York January fifteenth, 1861. We were 
in New York for two months and a half, a good part of 
which time I spent in South Danvers. 

There was quite a difference of opinion in the family 
circle about my cousin Miss Porter’s going to China to 
marry Mr. Richardson. Some favored it; some were 
very much against it, but I guaranteed his good character 
and carried the day, and it was resolved that she go out 
with me and my wife again and take the chances. I told 
my mother-in-law she had been faithful over a few things 
and I would make her ruler over many, so I left all four 
of my children with her, to take care of during my absence, 
and my wife and I, and my cousin, on the fourth of April, 
1861, set sail again for China. 

For the first five days we had very heavy weather, but 
after that the usual kind, and we made a good passage 
to the equator, of twenty days. In forty-nine days we 
passed the meridian of Cape of Good Hope; running 
down our easting we had a continuation of heavy gales, 
and cold, unpleasant weather. On the seventy-fifth day 


155 


we made Christmas Island and on the seventy-eighth day 
anchored in Anjer. The big comet had been growing 
brighter and brighter till it was a magnificent sight. We 
had light winds all the way up the China Sea, but the night 
of July ninth there was a change, the barometer falling 
and wind increasing, so I sent down the skysail and royal 
yards, and put the ship under close-reefed topsails. The 
storm grew worse at midnight and I hove the ship to and 
waited for a typhoon to pass to the northward. This 
was my third experience of success in clearing out from a 
hurricane by heeding the law of storms. After the storm 
was over we made sail and reached Hong Kong on the 
evening of the eleventh of July, ninety-seven days from 
New York. It had been a very trying week to all of us, 
especially to my cousin, who was worrying for fear that 
Mr. Richardson would not be on hand to meet her. But 
her mind was now relieved, for as soon as our anchor was 
down he came on board, the first one. Of course we were 
all happy in being thus assured that he was true and ready 
to fulfil his engagement. As he had to return to his busi¬ 
ness at Amoy the wedding was hastened, and after a short 
time he was married to my cousin in the Episcopal Church 
in Hong Kong, and with his bride left for Amoy. We 
were very sorry to part with my cousin, for she was a very 
lovely girl. 

After many weeks in Hong Kong, and still no prospect of 
loading tea for New York, Smith, Archer & Co. concluded 
to send the ship to San Francisco with a load of Chinese 
coolies. There was a great demand for ships to carry them 
and it was a money-making voyage. The ship was 
measured and we were allowed to carry four hundred. 
It took quite a long time to fit her out for this new trade; 
bunks had to be built in the between-decks, furnaces put 


156 


on deck for cooking, and quite a large house on deck for 
stores, and a great many extra water tanks and casks. 
But we had seventy-five dollars for each Chinaman, 
making nearly thirty thousand dollars for passage money, 
besides freight money, and there were several passengers 
in the cabin. 

On the sixteenth of September all was ready and we got 
under weigh with a light wind from the east, and proceeded 
to sea. The fourth day out the wind hauled to the north, 
blowing fresh with falling barometer, showing that a 
typhoon was coming from the east and that I was just in 
front of it. September twenty-first, took in everything 
but the lower topsails and kept off south by east to clear 
the centre of the storm. At three p.m. took in the main 
topsail and lay to on the port tack. The wind was blowing 
very heavily with torrents of rain, and very high, confused 
sea. At eight p.m. the wind hauled to the west, which 
showed me to be on the southern edge of the storm, and 
the wind being fair, I kept the ship away due east and ran 
along the edge of the typhoon. Soon the wind began to 
moderate and we made sail. 

On the first of October the mate reported to me that 
one of the fresh-water tanks had sprung a leak and that 
we had lost over two thousand gallons of water, so I made 
up my mind to go into Yokahama and secure more water 
casks. My wife and the passengers were glad to hear it 
and made all sorts of plans as to what they would do, 
but they were doomed to disappointment, for after our 
beating about the Bay of Yeddo for two days the wind 
came on to blow a gale from the north, with much rain, 
and I kept the ship away for San Francisco, with all my 
water casks filled. We had a very stormy passage with 
lots of rain, so that on arriving in San Francisco we still 


157 


had all our water casks filled, notwithstanding the large 
quantity of water we used daily. On the thirtieth of 
October we made the land at eight p.m., took a pilot 
inside the Farallones, and at midnight came to anchor in 
San Francisco Bay, forty-five days from Hong Kong. 
We did not lose a Chinaman, but brought them all safely 
to their destination. They gave us no trouble, kept very 
quiet, smoking and sleeping and eating, and were the best 
kind of passengers. 

We were detained in San Francisco till the twenty- 
eighth of November. It was very tedious waiting for a 
crew, as men were unwilling to make a long voyage. At 
last, on the twenty-ninth of November we were towed to 
sea by the tug boat Columbus and at noon took our depart¬ 
ure from Point Bonita, six miles distant, with light breeze 
and rain. The light winds continued and it was the twenty 
first day out that I hove to off Honolulu. I went on shore 
and Father Damon came off to see my wife, as I had no 
intention of stopping. At five p.m. we filled away; had 
fight winds for the next eighteen days and then strong 
winds from north northwest to southwest. On the 
twenty-fourth of January we sighted Claro Babuyan and 
Richmond Islands and on the twenty-sixth at eight a.m. 
came to anchor in Manila Bay, fifty-eight days from San 
Francisco, a very long passage. 

My wife and I went on shore to Peele, Hubbell & Co. 
(agents of Messrs. A. A. Low & Bros.), met many old 
friends and enjoyed the change from ship to shore fife. 
There had been a heavy earthquake a few days before 
we arrived, which we had felt at sea, though at the time 
we were uncertain about it. The walls of Peele, Hubbell 
& Co/s house were badly cracked, and much of the 
Cathedral wall was tumbled down, and the whole city 


158 


showed how severe the shock had been, but there was 
no recurrence of the tremor and we were not at all 
alarmed. 

In Manila, and in fact in all Spanish places, there are 
about three holidays in a week in which you can get no 
work done, so we were in the harbor a month getting 
half a cargo of hemp. But the time passed pleasantly. 
We had our carriage in the mornings, with a driver, and 
another in the afternoon, and it was very pleasant to go 
to the Esplanade and hear the band play and see the people, 
for all of the foreigners and also the Spanish community 
were there to show off every afternoon, and the weather 
was delightful. My wife bought some beautiful Pina 
handkerchiefs and scarfs made from the pineapple fibre. 
The material is very beautiful. She enjoyed eating the 
mango which is very fine in these islands, and the Guava 
jelly made there, which is also delicious. 

But we could not get a full cargo there and had to go to 
China to fill up with teas and silks; so after a month we 
took our departure for Hong Kong, on the twenty-sixth 
of February, 1862, with light winds and fine weather. 
On the fourth of March we took a pilot, and at eight p.m. 
anchored off Green Island in the harbor of Hong Kong, 
six days from Manila; and after being in Hong Kong for 
some weeks got under weigh for Whampoa to finish loading 
for New York. I took my wife to Canton as usual, and 
we had a very pleasant time at Russell & Co.’s. There 
were very many pleasant gentlemen in the various hongs, 
or merchants’ houses; in fact old Canton “couldn’t be 
beat” as a place of residence, while the best of living in 
the way of fish, flesh and fowl could be had very cheap 
and the Chinese cooks knew their business. With it all 
we were anxious to be on our way home, and were very 


159 


glad to know it when the last teas had gone to the ship and 
I could sign the bills of lading and settle up. 

We had a few passengers on our return voyage, one of 
whom was Mrs. Parker, a very pleasant lady. Almost 
all the way home she played cribbage with my wife. I 
had a small table made for them which used to be placed 
somewhere in the shade, and soon after breakfast they 
sat down to the game and kept it up a long time every 
pleasant day. We left on the twentieth of April for New 
York, and all the way down the China Sea we had light 
winds. We anchored in Anjer on the fourteenth of May, 
twenty-five days from China. All the way across the 
Indian Ocean winds were light till we reached Madagascar, 
where we experienced some heavy gales. 

We had not been able to get a white crew in China and 
had had to ship fifty Lascars, with a serang as captain, 
and two officers. They all worked together and all hands 
were called when there was anything to do. They made 
splendid sailors in warm weather and were like monkeys 
in going aloft. They lived on rice and dried fish, eating 
no pork or beef. They had a cook who made curry for 
them, fresh every day, and I had him make it for the cabin, 
it was so very nice. On July second we were off Agulhas 
Banks, very near the Cape of that name, and the wind 
died out. After breakfast I had the mate tie some fish 
hooks on the deep sea lead line, and bait them with salt 
pork and then throw it over to get soundings. On hauling 
it in we found every hook had a fine fish on it; we threw 
it again and caught more. It began to get exciting, and 
the Lascars went to fishing on their own hook and the fish 
were hauled in as fast as they could throw their lines. 
It was not necessary to let the line go to the bottom, for 
the fish had followed up to nearly the top of the water. 


160 


The ship was covered with blood and scales from the bows 
to the taffrail. We had Cape salmon, sea bass and Spanish 
mackerel, weighing from five to fifteen pounds apiece, 
and as we could not eat them all, the Lascars cleaned and 
salted them. We had to open several casks of salt beef 
and pork to get salt enough though the fish took but little. 
I was surprised to see how little, but there were over two 
hundred of them. They lasted us till we reached New 
York. The Lascars enjoyed them very much and so we 
all did; they were certainly as good fish as I ever tasted. 

After an all day’s calm the wind was moderate from 
the west during the night, and then increased to a fresh 
gale which lasted for two days, when it moderated. At 
three p.m. of July sixth we made Cape of Good Hope, 
seventy-eight days from Hong Kong. For nine days 
after, we had the hardest luck I ever had, a succession of 
calms and light head winds, and not till we reached latitude 
24° south did we get the southeast trades. On the twenti¬ 
eth of July at four a.m. we made St. Helena and at eight 
a.m. came to anchor. My wife and the passengers hired 
carriages and we drove to Longwood to view the dwelling 
place of Napoleon; also visited his grave, which was 
empty, for his remains had been removed to France. 
Jamestown, where we landed, is a rather pleasant place, 
but the American Consul told me that all the wooden 
buildings were being eaten up by white ants, and showed 
me their work on his own house, the foundations of which 
were riddled and ready to let the house down. At nine 
p.m. we had finished taking in stores and got under weigh, 
with light southeast trades which continued moderate, 
and we crossed the line July thirty-first, one hundred and 
three days from Hong Kong, Light winds continued and 
on the twenty-sixth of August we took a pilot off Absecom 


161 


at two p.m., reaching New York at seven p.m., after the 
longest passage I ever made. 

After a few days in New York I went to South Danvers 
with my wife and had a joyful reunion with her mother 
and the children. We had been away from home sixteen 
months, and Charles and Josiah had grown to be big boys, 
at any rate they thought they had. Frank and Fannie 
too were getting along fast. After six weeks at South 
Danvers I was again called to my ship, which was loading 
for China. 

A steamer had been built in New York to be sent to 
China. She was set up and then taken apart, and the 
N. B. Palmer was to carry her. All the woodwork and 
all the machinery we got below decks, but the huge boilers 
were to be taken on deck. They weighed twenty tons 
each, and the main deck had to be shored up from the 
keelson, and the between-decks strengthened. When 
the ship was ready, the floating derrick came alongside 
with them and it was beautiful to see these immense boilers 
lifted and landed just in the bed prepared to receive them. 
They were nearly eight feet above the rail, and the smoke¬ 
stacks reached half way to the main-top. I did not like 
such a deck load, and thinking of the long run in the 
Indian Ocean before the westerly gales and of the ship’s 
rolling for days and weeks, I could not avoid anxiety as 
to what would happen if those immense weights should 
break adrift. However, they were lashed securely with 
chains and wedged most carefully. They were to go to 
China, and I was to be the Captain of the ship to take 
them there, and I made the best of it. We had for pas¬ 
sengers Captain McDonald, who was to have charge of 
the steamer in China, Mr. Laing and his son, engineers, 
three carpenters and machinists to put the boat together. 


162 


and four missionaries with their wives, quite a full cabin. 
Some of my Lascars had been enticed away, and as no 
white sailors would ship with them, I had to take black 
sailors, and I had nine men as black as they are made. 

Being ready for sea we left New York on the twenty- 
fifth of October, 1862, with a light northerly wind hauling 
to the eastward, which ended the next day with a fresh 
gale with heavy rain. The second day had heavy gale 
from southeast, and as it was dead ahead we made small 
progress. The third day was still worse; we lost our 
mainsail and jib and one of the quarter boats was washed 
from the davits. October thirtieth, five days out, the wind 
hauled to the northwest and we scudded before it and had 
a chance to see how the boilers were going to hold. We 
found at the end of the storm that they had not moved a 
particle; they were as firm as the ship itself, and all hands 
were much relieved as well as myself. With light winds 
and fine weather we reached latitude 5° north, where we 
took the southeast trade winds and crossed the line twenty 
eight days out. November twenty-sixth we made the 
Brazilian coast, near San Miguel. Had a beating match 
along the coast and a fine view of Pernambuco and Olinda. 
December first, passed within six miles of Trinidad and 
with variable winds and nothing remarkable occurring, 
we carried the boilers safely through the Indian Ocean, 
and on the fifteenth day of January, 1863, made the Straits 
of Allas and at two p.m. came to anchor in Bally roads. 

We found the American ship Rapid badly on shore and 
half full of water. She was loaded with coal, and if we 
had been in ballast I could have made a good deal of money 
by taking it to Hong Kong, as the ship and cargo were to 
be sold for a mere song. At the request of the Captain, I 
took the crew on board as passengers to Hong Kong, but 


163 


they had been on shore too long and had taken the deadly 
Java fever, and three of them died before we reached the 
Pacific Ocean, and if it had not been for the care and 
medical skill of the missionaries who nursed them, I believe 
all of them would have died, for every one was taken sick. 
Fortunately none of my own crew took the disease. 

January the twenty-fourth, came to anchor in Cajeli 
Bay for water. It was just about fifteen years since I first 
anchored in this bay to get water and spars, after being 
dismasted in the Indian Ocean in the ship Houqua , on 
my first voyage as Master, and I found many changes. 
There was a new governor and no one who remembered 
me, but we were cordially received by the Dutch governor, 
and myself and all the passengers were dined and feasted 
by him and his household. We were there two days, and 
as it rained heavily, it was tedious work taking the water 
casks on shore and towing them back to the ship. On 
the twenty-sixth of January we took advantage of the 
land breeze and at ten p.m. sailed out of the harbor. 

For three days we met light winds and calms and on the 
fifth of February we were becalmed off St. Andrews 
Island, latitude 7° north, 132° east longitude. Some fifteen 
or twenty canoes, with nearly one hundred and fifty natives, 
all naked and tattoed from head to foot, surrounded the 
ship; but I would not allow one of them aboard, and as I 
had a big crew of Lascars and negroes, we were enabled 
to show a row of faces from the bow to the stern. We 
bought all their yams and fruit and most of them left. 
There was one boat, however, that kept by us and begged 
for tobacco. A plug was hove overboard and the whole 
crew jumped after it. The steward then brought up an 
old white hat and threw it over, and they went after that. 
Soon one man stood up in the canoe with the hat on his 


164 


head and quite proud of himself. That was all he had on. 
Then some one threw over a pair of drawers, another an 
undershirt, till at last the whole crew stood up in the canoe, 
each with an article of dress on, forming one of the most 
comical sights I ever saw. I have always regretted that 
I had no camera to take a photo of them. 

We soon got a fine breeze and went on our way, and on 
February fourteenth took a pilot and anchored in Hong 
Kong, one hundred and twelve days from New York, a 
very good passage by the Eastern route. We sailed the 
next day for Whampoa to discharge our cargo. I was 
agreeably disappointed in finding I should have no trouble 
in discharging the heavy boilers, as a large wharf had been 
built and a fine large derrick, capable of lifting the heaviest 
of machinery, was erected upon it. We anchored and 
moored close to the wharf, and discharged most erf the 
woodwork of the steamer, which lightened the ship so 
we could haul alongside the wharf and be afloat at low 
tide. We were not long in doing it and were soon under 
the derrick, and the boilers were landed almost as easily 
as they were put on board. I was greatly relieved when 
it was over with no accident and no damage. 

Many men were put to work and the building of the 
steamer progressed so rapidly that before we sailed again, 
two months from the time we began to unload, she was 
launched, and christened the Thomas Hunt. Of course 
it took many months to finish her deck and cabin fittings. 
She was a very pretty boat and did good work carrying 
passengers between Hong Kong and Canton. 

There being no chance for a home cargo it was resolved 
to send the N. B. Palmer to San Francisco with tea, rice 
and sugar, freights being very good. We took in most of 
the cargo in Whampoa, but filled up in Hong Kong, and 


165 


after two months and a half in port we left, the thirtieth 
of May, for San Francisco. We had quite a large number 
of passengers, most of them minstrels under Charles 
Backus; and one sick man, a Mr. Mackintosh, who was 
in hopes to get home to his wife and brothers. Poor fellow! 
he died when we were twenty-three days out and I had to 
bury him at sea, as there were no means of preserving the 
body. 

We had the usual stormy weather and days of light 
winds, but made a good passage of forty-four days from 
Hong Kong. We took a pilot off the Farallones and 
anchored in San Francisco at six p.m. of the twelfth of 
July, 1863. I had been quite sick on the voyage over, 
and as the Civil War was now at its height, and the Ala¬ 
bama in the China Sea (and as the N. B. Palmer which was 
to go back to China might be detained there an indefinite 
time) I consulted the consignees, who telegraphed to A. A. 
Low & Bros, for liberty to make Mr. Joseph Steele (my 
mate) Master of the ship, so that I could return home by 
way of Panama. A favorable answer was returned, and 
a few days before the ship sailed for China, I made Mr. 
Steele Captain. 

Shortly after she sailed I took passage in the steamer 
Golden Age for Panama. I was very glad to make a 
voyage in an ocean steamer, as I had never been in one 
and I had heard how they went ahead through high seas 
and cared nothing for head winds. The Golden Age was 
a fine steamer, but nothing like those that crossed the 
Atlantic between New York and Liverpool. She had 
state-rooms above the deck and a hurricane deck running 
to her bows and a good deal of top hamper. While she 
was getting ready for sea I often went on board, and I 
expressed to the Captain and mate my desire to see a gale 


166 


of wind on the passage, to see what weather she would 
make of it, and they remembered it. 

We started the first week in August with fine weather. 
We had over one hundred passengers, and a very pleasant 
set of people. The fare was excellent—for almost every¬ 
thing could be had in San Francisco in the way of eatables 
—and everything was pleasant. The Captain was a young 
man and very attentive to his passengers. All went well, 
the ocean as smooth as could be and the weather warm 
and pleasant till we neared Cape Corientes. At six a.m. 
the mate came to my room and called, “ Captain Low, if 
you want to see a gale of wind, now is your chance.” 
My state-room looked out on the ocean, so I looked out, 
but to my thinking there was but a very small gale blowing 
and I turned over and went to sleep again. At seven the 
Captain came and called me to see a gale of wind. At 
that I got up, thinking there must be something to see. 
I dressed leisurely and went down on the main deck, 
and I saw that if it was not blowing very hard, the steamer 
was making bad weather of it. The sea was washing over 
the deck abaft the paddle boxes—for she was a side wheeler. 
I went up to the Captain’s room and looked at the barom¬ 
eter, which was quite low and some three-tenths below 
where it had been set. I then went out to the forward 
part of the boat where the Captain was standing outside 
the wheel box. The steamer was motionless and lying 
in the trough of the sea, in a very dangerous position. The 
wind was blowing hard. I said nothing, not wishing to 
interfere and supposing the Captain knew what he was 
about; but a heavier gust of wind came, lifting the hurri¬ 
cane deck over the forward deck, so that some of the 
stanchions fell out, and at the same time throwing the 
steamer over so that the guards went under and a lot of 


167 


sheep were washed into the sea. The second officer was 
hurled across the deck, breaking his arm. I felt it was 
time to speak and I touched the Captain’s arm and said 
to him, “Your vessel is in a dangerous position; you must 
do something to bring her head to the sea, or she will go 
over and drown us all.” He said something about the 
engine being on the centre and he could not get headway. 
I asked him if he had no after sail to set. I knew she 
carried sail, but it seems there was none bent. Then I 
asked him if I should try and find some way to get her 
head to the sea. He thanked me and I jumped up on 
the hurricane deck and looked aft. Then I saw the 
curtains that were hauled down in fine weather to keep 
the sun off when low down. I then went to the Captain 
and requested him to order some men to help me, and 
when they came I ordered them to loose the curtains and 
trice them down to the deck. It was a hard job, for it 
was blowing a fierce gale, but the effect on the ship was 
immediate, for it brought her head to the sea and she was 
as steady as could be. I took the second mate’s place 
and worked the awnings for some hours, and the gale did 
not last long. By five p.m. the steamer was started on 
her course again, but I really believe if I had not been on 
board she would have foundered with all on board. The 
passengers realized their danger and my help; they held 
a meeting in the cabin the next day and passed resolutions 
thanking me for my prompt action. As for myself, I 
concluded I would rather have a good sailing ship than a 
steamer, any time. The Captain said it was the first 
real gale of wind he had ever seen and he had been in the 
trade ten years—he was no sailor, evidently. After the 
gale we had fine weather and reached Panama in safety. 
I was agreeably disappointed in the trip across the Isth- 


168 


mus, for instead of being very hot, it was very pleasant, 
and I enjoyed the ride immensely. At Aspinwall we took 
the steamer Colon , Captain Finklepaugh, for New York. 
There was a great difference in the living on board. Ships 
from New York lay in provisions enough to last out and 
home, kept in ice houses, but the ice had given out and 
the meats had spoiled, so we had to put up with a diet of 
beans, salt pork and salt beef, with ham and eggs occasion¬ 
ally. There was much growling among the California 
passengers, but the weather was pleasant and after a 
short passage we arrived in New York. My family were 
all in South Danvers, so in a few days I went on to join 
them. 

I had been at home some eight months when my brothers 
Abbot and Josiah proposed that my brother Edward and 
myself should go into business together in New York. 
I agreed to this and we hired part of the store next to 
A. A. Low & Bros., laid in a stock of teas and China goods, 
and did very well. As it looked like a permanent thing, I 
sold my place and moved my family on to Brooklyn, 
where my brother Abbot rented me the house on Jora- 
lemon St., No. 150, a very pleasant house near Court St. 
Our business prospered and I was contented till I heard 
of Captain Steele’s long passages in my old ship the N. B. 
Palmer. He made a very long passage from San Fran¬ 
cisco, and then one of over one hundred and fifty days 
from China to New York. Again leaving New York he 
had another very long passage to China, I think nearly 
one hundred and sixty days. This worried me very much. 

In the summer of 1866, I with quite a number of 
Brooklyn men, started the Atlantic Yacht Club; and I 
purchased the yacht Annie Laurie , a sloop, forty feet long 
and very comfortable, a good sea-boat and a good sailer. 


169 


I had a very nice time in her and made several excursions 
down the Sound, but it took too much money, and time 
too, so I sold her, after owning her eighteen months. She 
went into the fishing business and I never saw her again. 

Our business was very good till the winter of 1867 and 
1868, when there was a great crash and we thought we 
had better close out. The N. B. Palmer had made 
another long passage home; my brothers offered me 
command of her again and I jumped at the offer. I left 
my brother Edward to close up the business, and took to 
the ship with as much pleasure as when I first went to sea. 
I secured Captain Nairn, a Scotchman, as chief mate, a 
man who had commanded one of the finest ships out of 
New York, the Jeremiah Thompson , but another captain 
had bought him out, and as captains were very plenty he 
had to take a mate’s berth. When he came to me I asked 
him if, after having commanded, he could serve willingly 
as chief mate. He said he was able and willing to do 
mate’s duty, and so he was. I never had so good a mate 
as he proved to be; a thorough sailor and disciplinarian, 
he was firm and made every sailor obey and respect him. 
I had been on shore over four years, and I thought every¬ 
thing would have to be learned over again, but as soon as I 
stepped my foot on board the ship I was perfectly at 
home and would not have known that I had been on shore 
at all. 

We left New York May fifteenth, 1868, for Hong Kong. 
I was alone in the big cabin, for there were no passengers. 
The railroad across the continent to San Francisco and 
the Pacific mail steamers from that port to China and 
Japan took all the passengers in half the time and at less 
expense. For a few days I was very lonesome, but I 
soon got used to it and spent most of my time on deck 


170 


looking after the ship. Our start, from the time the pilot 
left us was very discouraging; light head winds and calms 
for four days, at the end of which we were not over two 
hundred miles from New York. We then took a gale 
from southeast veering to the south, and on the fourteenth 
day out we came up with the clipper ship Game Cock , 
which left five days before us. We were in company five 
days, when we left her out of sight astern. We crossed 
the line twenty-six days from New York and had a fair 
run to the longitude of the Cape of Good Hope, but 
from there the winds held to the south and east so as to 
prevent my getting south as far as I wanted to go. I 
was in latitude 34° when I should have been in 39° or 
40°. However, I managed to get along and hove to off 
Anjer in seventy-eight days from New York, a very good 
passage after all, and after twelve more days reached Hong 
Kong, ninety days from New York, the first decent passage 
the ship had made for four years. 

We were kept in Hong Kong over five weeks waiting 
orders. On September twenty-second we left for Yoko¬ 
hama to load for New York. We had light winds and 
calms till we passed Formosa, when we had a variety of 
weather, short gales and calms, and on the sixteenth of 
October a hard gale, when we hove to off Cape Idsu, 
Japan. At four a.m. a Japanese junk running before 
the gale struck us in the port quarter and stove a hole just 
above the cabin floor, a foot above the water, nearly three 
feet square. We managed to batten two thicknesses of 
stout canvas over it which kept the water out, and as it 
was on the weather side most of the time, we got along very 
well. At seven a.m. we took a pilot off Susaki, were all 
day beating up the Uraga Channel, and at eight p.m. 
anchored off Yokohama, twenty-eight days from Hong 


171 


Kong. The weather was very unpleasant. The residents 
said it had been raining since the first of May. Soon 
after we arrived it began to snow and was very cold. 

The Japanese are not so pleasant to deal with as the 
Chinese. The reason why I did not like them was be¬ 
cause there were so few who could speak English. The 
Japanese language is very easy to acquire and the foreigners 
all spoke it, or enough of it to carry on their business, so 
the natives did not in those days try to learn English. 

The entrance to the harbor, in fact the whole coast of 
Japan, is very beautiful, and as we had to beat all the 
way along we had a fine view of the different landscapes, 
the ground being cultivated from the shore to the top of 
the hills with different plants, showing many colored 
squares, a most pleasing effect. Yokohama is a very 
good place to live. The English and American business 
houses are very similar to those in China, the head men 
and clerks living like princes, and having on their tables 
good meats and fish and plenty of game. In fact Japan 
and China have everything in plenty to suit the palate. 
The Japanese are not troubled with much modesty; 
their bath houses are on the streets and men and women 
bathe in full sight of all passers. 

After lying in the harbor for over two months we began 
to load for home. The stevedores are not as smart as 
the Chinese, but still did well. About ten days before 
we were ready to sail, a clipper English bark was ready 
for sea, and the Captain had a talk with my mate. He 
said he was going to New York and that when we arrived 
he would be on the wharf to take our hawser. Mr. Nairn 
told him he did not know what he was saying; that Captain 
Low knew every wave that rolled and every wind that blew 
between Yokohama and New York, and it was more 


r 


172 


likely that we should be in New York to welcome him. 
To end the story, we left a fortnight after him and arrived 
in New York thirty-five days before him, had discharged 
our cargo and were nearly loaded before he arrived. His 
excuse was that he went to the eastward of Bermuda and 
had a hard time getting to the westward. 

On the first of January we got under weigh and pro¬ 
ceeded to sea. The first day out four of the crew were 
laid up with typhus fever and were very sick. On the 
ninth day Albert Pitman, a fine young seaman, died, and 
on the sixteenth Dexter Howard, my third mate, died; 
both were buried at sea. The others recovered, but were 
not able to do duty for some weeks. Considering the time 
of year, we had a long passage of twenty-five days to 
Anjer. Instead of strong northeast monsoon we had 
light winds with much rain and unpleasant weather. We 
passed Cape of Good Hope fifty-six days from Yoko¬ 
hama. We met light trades and baffling winds in the 
South Atlantic and were eighty days out before crossing 
the line. We took a pilot on the sixteenth of April, one 
hundred and six days from Yokohama, a long passage 
for me, but a great improvement on the last three passages. 

After six weeks on shore, on the second of June, 1869, 
I again set sail for Shanghai, Mr. Nairn with me as mate 
and no passengers. I started in to copy all my journals 
in new books, as the old ones were wearing out. It was 
a big job, but it passed the time away when I was tired 
of being on deck. However, it was not often I felt tired 
when there was a good breeze, or when there was some¬ 
thing to do in trimming sails to a baffling wind. We had 
a long passage of thirty days to the line and it seemed to 
me there was getting to be less wind all the time. We 
saw many vessels bound home, but not near enough to 


173 


send letters. We got our first heavy weather in 38° south, 
26° west. We had it all the time we were running down 
our easting, and we made good time, passing Anjer in 
seventy-seven days from New York. We also had a 
good passage up the China Sea. Took a pilot off Lenconna 
from pilot boat number seven, ninety-five days from New 
York, a fine passage considering we were thirty days to 
the line in the Atlantic. We were fortunate in getting 
up the river, and anchored off Shanghai on the eighth of 
September. We were in Shanghai three months before 
we could get a cargo of tea, as the Chinese merchants 
held out for higher prices and the English and American 
merchants refused to pay. There were a large number of 
vessels of both nations in port, and the Chinaman said 
to the merchants, “Too many ships in Shanghai; cost 
too much money; must have tea; Chinaman in no hurry, 
bye and bye must pay Chinaman’s price.” And sure 
enough, first the English yielded, then the rest followed, 
and the Chinese merchants won the game. Hard work 
to get ahead of them! There were many shipmasters 
with their wives, and I had a very pleasant time, living 
on shore a good part of the time with Smith, Archer & 
Co., but I went afloat every day, visiting the different ships. 
Although the weather was very cold and there was much 
snow, it melted in a short time so that little remained on 
the ground. 

My brother Edward and his wife were there (in Shang¬ 
hai) and were to go home with me. He had been an 
invalid for a number of years and had made the voyage 
to China in hopes of recovering his health. He had 
improved much but was far from well. I was very glad 
to have their company home. 

On December second, 1869 we started down the river 


174 


and anchored in Woosung where we lay wind bound till 
the sixth, the wind blowing so hard we could not beat 
down the Yang-tse River with safety. On the sixth we 
got under weigh and at half past twelve the pilot left us 
off the light ship in a strong, north northeast wind and 
dark, cloudy weather. We passed Hong Kong in seventy- 
two hours from Shanghai, and sent a letter on shore by a 
pilot boat which reported us. The weather continued 
cloudy, with fresh breezes till we neared the Natunas 
Islands. Just south of these islands we had a heavy 
squall, called a “ Sumatra,” when we had to take in every¬ 
thing but close-reefed topsails and lost a main-topsail- 
staysail. These squalls come up very suddenly, with a 
single flash of lightning in the west as the warning, and 
you must get sail in as quickly as possible. In this season 
they occur almost daily and we had heavy squalls as far 
down as Gaspar Straits. We passed Anjer in fourteen 
days from Shanghai, a good passage; had strong winds 
beating down the straits. On the fifteenth day we passed 
Prince’s Island, having very light winds to 15° south 
latitude, when we took the southeast trades and had a 
good run to Madagascar. There we met heavy gales 
with thunder and lightning, which continued to Cape 
Padrone on the coast of Africa. The current here runs 
rapidly to the southwest, and the wind blowing contrary, 
or against the current, made a very bad sea, tossing the 
ship about in a most uncomfortable manner. My brother 
and his wife were good sailors, however, and stood it 
bravely. Off L’Agulhas Bank we caught several fish, 
but did not stop to fish. We passed Cape of Good Hope 
on the twenty-ninth of January, 1870. With moderate 
trades we crossed the line in seventy-seven days from 
Shanghai and had light northeast trades and baffling winds 


175 


to Cape Hatteras, where we took a heavy gale from north¬ 
west and in the Gulf Stream we were hove to for three 
days in a furious gale with heavy squalls of snow and hail. 
On the twentieth of March it moderated, and we made 
sail, and on the twenty-second made Fire Island Light at 
eight p.m. At seven a.m. on the twenty-third took a pilot 
and reached New York early in the afternoon, one hundred 
and six days from Shanghai. 

I had a pleasant sojourn with my family for six weeks, 
until the ship was again loaded and ready to sail for China, 
Hong Kong being the first port to call at. There was 
nothing worthy of note on the passage out. We had the 
usual variable weather and passed Anjer eighty days 
from New York, and anchored in Hong Kong on the 
fifteenth of August, 1870, ninety-three days from New 
York, a very good passage. 

We discharged our cargo and took in a half cargo of 
cotton goods and sailed for Shanghai the twenty-ninth of 
August. The southwest monsoon was over and we had 
calms and light winds from southwest to north northeast 
to 25° north latitude, where we met strong breezes from 
north northeast and dead ahead, but on the sixteenth of 
September we took a pilot from boat No. 5 off the 
Saddle Islands, and with a good passage up the river an¬ 
chored in Shanghai on the eighteenth of September, seven¬ 
teen days from Hong Kong. 

After six weeks in Shanghai, with nothing worthy of 
note to remark upon, we left for New York on the thirtieth 
of October with a full cargo of teas. After a long passage 
of twenty-six days we put into Anjer for medical assistance, 
four or five of my men being down with typhus fever. 
We lay at anchor for four days, until the sick men were out 
of danger, and on November twenty-ninth we got under 


176 


weigh and proceeded down the straits. January third, 
1871 we were off L’Agulhas Bank and caught eight fine 
fish, one weighing forty-five and another thirty pounds. 
We rounded the Cape of Good Hope at nine thirty a.m. 
the next morning. Crossed the line eighty-five days from 
Shanghai. In 6° north latitude we found our main-mast 
very badly sprung, and I sent down the royal and skysail 
yards, also the main-topgallant yard. February third, 
sent down main-topgallant mast. On February ninth 
we entered the Gulf and for three days had heavy gales 
with hail and snow. On the thirteenth we took a pilot 
off Barnegat in a strong gale from north and north north¬ 
east, followed on the fifteenth by a heavy snow storm. 
A steam tug took us in tow T at nine a.m. and we hauled 
alongside Prentiss’ wharf at four p.m., glad enough to be 
at home again. 

April 26, 1871, I sailed again for Hong Kong, making 
the passage without incident in one hundred and three 
days and twelve hours, arriving on August seventh, 1871 
in Hong Kong, where I found orders to proceed to Shang¬ 
hai. After discharging our freight, we left on August 
eighteenth and with light winds proceeded on our way. 
On the seventh day out we took a pilot from cutter No 
2 and at seven p.m. came to anchor off Gutzlaff Island; 
at five a.m. got under weigh, at noon came to anchor; 
at four thirty p.m. the steamer Samson took us in tow; 
at eight p.m. we anchored at Woosung, and on the morning 
after, we proceeded to Shanghai, hauling alongside of 
Oliphant’s wharf at three p.m. This taking a pilot out 
of a cutter and being towed into port by a steamer was 
something new in my experience and it made the passage 
of the Yang-tse very much easier. And then to haul 
alongside of a wharf was equally new in a Chinese port. 


177 


But being close to the land was not so pleasant, for the 
men went ashore just when they pleased and it was hard 
to keep them at work. However, we were not long in 
Shanghai and as soon as the cargo was out we hauled out 
to our moorings in the river. 

We had been in Shanghai a little over a month, when 
we were loaded for New York and on the fifth of October 
we were towed down the river, discharging the pilot on 
the sixth at eight thirty a.m. At noon, when abreast of 
Chesung Island, the weather became very threatening, 
barometer being quite low; but the wind was fair and I 
hoped to get ahead of a typhoon, if there was one. On 
the seventh the wind blew a gale with a very heavy sea 
and at one p.m. a sea struck the port quarter, carrying 
away a quarter boat and doing other damage. The heavy 
gale lasted all day and continued on the eighth. We were 
scudding under close-reefed fore- and main-topsails. At 
seven a.m. of the ninth there was a furious hurricane. 
We lay the ship to under bare poles; at noon, the wind 
moderating, made sail and proceeded down the China 
Sea. With light winds and cloudy weather and calms 
we had a long passage to Anjer, being twenty-eight days 
before passing Java Head. With moderate breezes across 
the Indian Ocean we passed Cape of Good Hope sixty 
days from Shanghai and had moderate trades and beautiful 
weather from the Cape to the equator, with no incident 
worthy of mention; very light northeast trades and baffling 
winds to Cape Hatteras, where we struck winter weather, 
and had hard gales with snow, rain and hail for four days, 
and then light winds, and then a southerly gale with heavy 
rain, which carried us to Barnegat, where we took a pilot 
fromboat No. 10, reaching New York January twentieth, 
1872, after a passage of one hundred and seven days. 


178 


After a two months’ stay at home, on the twenty-first 
of March, 1872, I again sailed in the N. B. Palmer for 
Shanghai, with a most combustible cargo, coal, lumber, 
kerosene oil, cotton goods and tar and pitch in the forehold. 
I often wondered, if we were struck by lightning, how long 
it would take for the ship to be destroyed! However, my 
thoughts did not dwell on any such catastrophe, especially 
on the day of sailing. On that day it was very cold, ther¬ 
mometer only twenty degrees above zero, and a brisk 
breeze blowing, with snow squalls, which on the third 
day out increased to a heavy gale. We soon left the cold 
behind us, but it blew heavily for some days, and we made 
good progress, crossing the equator in twenty-four days 
from New York. I shall not go into details, as a voyage 
at sea is monotonous to tell about, though exciting to 
live through. One who loves the sailing of a ship is always 
watching for the wind to blow, and the wind is never in 
the same quarter for any length of time, and the sails have 
to be trimmed very often and the yards braced forwards 
or squared, to catch the veering winds. In the trade winds 
from Cape of Good Hope you can run for weeks without 
altering the yards, in which time you can trice up all the 
running rigging clear of the rails, tar down all the standing 
rigging, scrape and oil the masts, paint the ship inside and 
out, holystone and oil the decks and have her all ready to 
go into port in good shape; but in the variable winds you 
must have everything ready for bad weather at any time. 

June seventeenth we anchored in Anjer Roads, eighty- 
eight days from New York, took in the usual supply of 
chickens, ducks, green turtles, fruit, vegetables and fresh 
water; and sailed on the eighteenth, proceeding with light 
winds up the China Sea. After passing the Natunas 
Islands, we had moderate southwest monsoon with cloudy. 


179 


rainy weather. July sixth we took a pilot off East Saddle 
Island, one hundred and six days from New York; ar¬ 
rived in Shanghai on the eighth, and moored ship off the 
factories, or American hong. 

The prospect for an early departure for home was not 
encouraging. There were many ships in port which had 
been there for some time. I however, passed the time 
away very pleasantly, living mostly at Smith, Archer & 
Co.’s house. But it was very tedious waiting for a cargo, 
as it was not till the nineteenth of October that we finished 
loading, after three months and eleven days in port. 

At one a.m. we left the pilot off the bar and proceeded 
to sea. At five p.m. passed the Saddle Islands with fine 
breeze from the northwest and in the short passage of 
seventy-two hours hove to off Pedro Blanco and sent 
letter by pilot to Hong Kong. After starting so finely I 
looked for a short passage to Anjer. We carried the wind 
to 6° north latitude, then experienced light winds and 
calms with heavy squalls, and did not reach Anjer till the 
tenth of November, twenty-three days from Shanghai. 
Passed the Cape of Good Hope in sixty-three days; crossed 
the line in eighty-five days and took a pilot February 
third, 1873, one hundred and eight days from Shanghai. 

After the cargo was discharged my brothers concluded 
to sell the ship. My mother had died before I got home 
and as I was tired of being away from my family ten 
months or a year and at home only some six weeks, I 
gave up the sea. Mr. Nairn, my chief mate, took com¬ 
mand, for which I was very thankful, for he had served 
me faithfully for five years and deserved the place. 































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